LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


EDGAR   H.    WEBSTER 


CHUMS  AND  BROTHERS 

AN  INTERPRETATION  OF  A  SOCIAL  GROUP  OF 
OUR  AMERICAN  CITIZENRY  WHO  ARE  IN 
THE  FIRST  AND  LAST  ANALYSIS '  'JUST  FOLKS" 

BY 
EDGAR  H.  WEBSTER 

Principal  of  Normal  Department,  Atlanta  University 


BOSTON 

RICHARD  G.  BADGER 

THE  GORHAM  PRESS 


LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

F»  AA7TC 


COPYRIGHT,  1920,  BY  RICHARD  G.  BADGER 
All  Rights  Reserved 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S,  A. 


TO 

SILAS  X.  FLOYD  ALONZO  H.  BROWN 

BENJAMIN  F.  ALLEN  JAMES  G.  LEMON 

GEORGE  A.  TOWNS  EUGENE  H.  DIBBLE,  JR. 

NATHANIEL  W.  COLLIER  HARRY  B.  PETERS 

WILLIAM  A.  ROGERS  JOHN  P.  WHITTAKER 

AND  THE  THOUSAND  OTHER  YOUTH  OF 
ATLANTA  UNIVERSITY 

WHO  WERE  IN  MY  EARLIER  YEARS  AT  ATLANTA  AS  MY 

CHUMS  AND  MY  BROTHERS,  AND  IN  THESE 

LATER  YEARS  AS  MY  SONS 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PRO  APOLOGIA  VITA  SUA      ...........  9 

THE  A.  U.  SPIRIT      .............  12 

FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FREEDOM  ...........  15 

MRS.  LUCY  E.  CASE  .............  18 

WHY  NOT  MAKE  FRIENDS?  I    ..........  26 

BEING  A  FRESHMAN  .............  32 

THREE  CRITICAL  POINTS  IN  AMERICAN  HISTORY       ....  38 

"THE  TOGA  VIRILIS"      ............  43 

BREAKING  THE  LAW  .............  52 

THE  EUROPEAN  WAR  A  CONFLICT  OF  IDEALS       .....  58 

AN  OUTING  WITH  TANNER    ...........  63 

STUDENT  BIOGRAPHIES    ............  71 

NOVEMBER  17,  1915  .............  76 

A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE—  1916     .........  83 

A  LAY  SERMON     ..............  90 

IN  THE  DAY  COACH  .............  96 

THE  NEGRO—  A  REVIEW      ...........  100 

TRUE  BLUE     ...............  112 

WHY  NOT  MAKE  FRIENDS?  II       .........  122 

"THE  CAR  SHED"    .............  128 

COLORED  BOYS  IN  CAMP  AT  FORT  DES  MOINES  .....  133 

AT  FORT  DES  MOINES    ............  137 

THE  OLD  CAR  SHED  AGAIN  ...........  141 

A  LABORATORY  STUDY  IN  SOCIOLOGY   ........  146 

FROM  THE  CANTONMENTS,  I       ..........  153 

5 


6  Contents 

PAGE 

FROM  THE  CANTONMENTS,  II 160 

AN  OPEN  LETTER 167 

A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE— 1918 175 

FROM  THE  CANTONMENTS,  III 180 

THE  UNIVERSITY  AND  THE  CHURCH 187 

"BoN  VOYAGE" 193 

WITH  THE  MEN  IN  KHAKI 200 

FROM  "OVERSEAS" 210 

THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY 225 

THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS 229 

SUPPOSE  IT  HAD  BEEN  YOUR  SON? 238 

THINKING  BLACK  ABOUT  AFRICA 242 


CHUMS  AND  BROTHERS 


CHUMS  AND  BROTHERS 


PRO  APOLOGIA   VITA   SUA 

SOME  years  ago,  a  friend,  not  born  to  the  pur 
ple  but  to  the  Negro  race,  a  former  student  in 
my  classes,  who  had  taken  a  professional  course  and 
was  now  a  successful  practising  physician,  called 
upon  us  at  our  home.  He  came  up  the  front  walk 
as  our  friends  do,  was  invited  in  at  the  front  door, 
and  sat  with  my  wife  and  myself  in  our  front  room 
where  we  receive  our  guests.  The  conversation  took 
many  a  turn,  for  our  caller  was  and  is  a  widely- 
read  man,  and  who  can  tell  a  story  and  tell  it  well. 
But  finally  the  conversation  turned  upon  the  race- 
question  as  our  conversations  are  apt  to  turn.  And 
in  closing  up  a  discussion  which  had  some  painful 
elements,  our  friend  remarked: 

"There  are  three  classes  of  white  folks  in  this 
country,  Northern  white  folks,  Southern  white  folks, 
and  You-folks.  The  Northern  white  folks  do  not 
pretend  to  understand  us;  the  Southern  white  think 
that  they  do  understand  us,  but  they  are  mistaken, 
they  do  not  understand  us.  But  You-folks,  you  un- 

9 


10  Chums  and  Brothers 

der stand  us.  You  know  that  we  are  'just  folks.'  " 
At  another  time  we,  my  wife  and  myself,  were 
dining  with  some  friends.  We  were  their  guests. 
Our  host  was  a  Negro  educator,  the  President  of 
a  well-known  school  for  colored  youth.  The  din 
ner  was  a  good  one,  tastefully  served  in  a  home 
whose  appointments  betokened  both  means  and  cul 
ture.  After  the  meal  had  been  fully  discussed,  the 
ladies  by  some  subtle  sympathy  left  us  men  to  our 
selves,  and  talked  together  of  the  things  that  inter 
ested  them.  As  neither  he  nor  I  smoked,  cigars 
were  not  in  order,  but  we  had  a  heart  to  heart  talk. 
Finally  my  host  said  to  me  and  of  me,  "You  have 
been  so  long  a  time  with  us,  and  so  identified  with 
our  people,  that  sometimes  we  forget  that  you  are 
not  one  of  us,  and  we  talk  with  you  as  we  talk 
among  ourselves." 

I  thought  at  the  time  and  I  still  think  that  that 
was  about  the  finest  compliment  that  a  man  could 
receive.  It  was  about  that  time  that  I  began  to 
write  short  articles  for  some  of  the  colored  papers, 
articles  in  which  perhaps  the  fundamental  note  was 
an  endeavor  to  interpret  the  colored  people  to  them 
selves  and  to  such  white  people  as  might  read  the 
articles  as  "Just  Folks." 

It  is  with  the  hope  that  this  interpretation  may 
come  before  a  wider  constituency,  that  I  have  col 
lected  some  of  these  papers  and  added  some  others 
and  put  them  into  a  book.  While-  each  article  is 


Pro  Apologia  Vita  Sua  11 

in  a  sense  complete  in  itself,  and  while  the  occasions 
which  called  them  forth  have  in  a  sense  passed,  there 
is  a  thread  of  unity  running  through  them,  per 
haps  only  the  desire  to  show  my  friends  as  "Just 
Folks>" 


THE  A.  U.   SPIRIT 

DURING  the  summer  just  passed  (1919),  I  re 
ceived  a  letter  from  a  student,  who  wrote 
somewhat  out  of  his  heart  thus: — "I  entered  At 
lanta  University  last  fall  because  of  the  Student 
Army  Training  Camp.  I  became  so  imbued  with 
the  A.  U.  spirit,  that  after  the  camp  closed  I  re 
mained  and  I  am  hoping  that  I  may  be  able  to  come 
back  and  finish  my  course." 

It  is  a  subtle  matter,  this  college  spirit.  Perhaps 
each  school  has  it.  And  yet  it  is  different  in  dif 
ferent  schools.  The  Harvard  spirit  is  not  the  Yale 
spirit,  nor  is  the  A.  U.  spirit  quite  that  of  its  sister 
schools. 

Three  times  since  '65,  at  least  three  times,  have 
the  colored  people  of  the  United  States  felt  a  great 
disappointment.  The  first,  perhaps,  was  the  result 
of  the  reaction  of  1877,  when  the  Negro  governments 
were  overturned  and  the  present  regime  in  the  South 
inaugurated.  However  sympathetic  we  may  be 
toward  the  South  in  the  overthrow  of  its  social  and 
its  economic  regime,  we  ought  to  be  similarly  sympa 
thetic  toward  the  Negroes  as  we  realize  how  bit 
terly  all  their  anticipations  of  Freedom  were  dis- 

12 


The  A.   U.  Spirit  13 

appointed.  In  the  second  place,  the  Negroes  threw 
themselves  heartily  into  the  Spanish-American  war 
and  still  recall  San  Juan  Hill.  They  saw  the  South 
demonstrate  its  loyalty  and  come  back  into  the  sis 
terhood  of  the  states,  and  they  did  not  understand 
why  their  own  loyalty  to  the  country  and  their  own 
prowess  in  the  war  did  not  assist  in  a  fair  solution 
of  their  own  problem.  Thirdly,  having  subscribed 
liberally  to  Liberty  Bonds  and  Thrift  Stamps,  hav 
ing  accepted  cheerfully  all  the  limitations  placed 
upon  us  all  by  a  war  situation,  and  having  sent  their 
sons  to  the  training-camps  and  to  the  front,  where 
these  Negro  youth  made  a  record  not  surpassed  by 
their  white  soldier-comrades — the  race  having  shown 
an  unexampled  loyalty  during  these  critical  months, 
the  disappointment  comes,  that  although  the  Negro 
fought  to  make  "democracy  safe  for  the  world  and 
the  world  safe  for  democracy,"  he  finds  the  old 
bureaucratic  regime  for  him  still  existing,  and  the 
mob-law  and  the  lynch-law  of  the  past  thirty  years, 
still  operative. 

The  Negro  soldier  boys  in  France  found  them 
selves  for  the  first  time  not  embarrassed  by  the  fact 
that  they  were  Negroes.  This  is  epitomized  in  a 
sentence  from  a  letter  which  was  published  in  a 
northern  magazine  during  last  year,  and  taken  from 
the  letter  by  the  white  officer  who  acted  as  censor. 

"Mother,  I  have  to  look  in  the  glass  to  assure  my 
self  that  I  am  colored." 


14  Chums  and  Brothers 

Years  ago,  in  his  student  life  at  Atlanta  Uni 
versity,  the  Reverend  Leigh  Maxwell  remarked,  "I 
never  think  of  myself  as  colored  when  on  the  A.  U. 
campus.  But  the  moment  I  step  off  the  South  Hall 
walk  into  the  street,  then  I  know  that  I  am  a  Ne- 
gro." 

Some  years  ago  at  a  gathering  of  graduates  and 
former  students  at  some  school  function,  one  of  the 
party,  when  called  upon  to  make  some  remarks,  said : 
"When  I  get  discouraged  and  disheartened  at  the 
restrictions  that  surround  us,  I  go  out  and  walk 
around  the  Atlanta  University  campus,  that  little 
bit  of  New  England  upon  the  red  clay  hills  of  North 
Georgia,  and  I  begin  to  feel  enheartened  and  en 
couraged." 

The  underlying  thought  of  the  Negro  upon  the 
factors  of  his  situation  is,  on  the  whole,  saner  than 
that  of  the  Southern  white  folks.  "Forty  acres  and 
a  mule"  long  since  ceased  to  have  attraction.  He 
does  not  ask  charity,  but  he  does  ask  justice.  He 
is  not  ashamed  to  be  a  Negro,  but  he  is  angered  at 
the  restrictions  that  his  African  lineage  places  upon 
him.  All  he  asks  is  that  the  Democratic  spirit 
which  is  the  thing  we  fought  for  shall  come  to  him 
and  his  children.  That  spirit  he  finds  or  thinks  he 
finds  exemplified  upon  the  campus  of  Atlanta  Uni 
versity.  Here  if  anywhere  in  the  South, 

The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp; 
The  man's  the  gold  for  a'  that. 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FREEDOM 

WHAT    THE   RACE    HAS   ACCOMPLISHED 

THE  following  table  is  printed  in  the  first  annual 
report  of  the  Illinois  Commission  (National) 
Half  Century  Anniversary  of  Negro  Freedom.  The 
table  may  be  put  down  as  trustworthy.  It  should 
be  cut  out  by  every  Colored  man,  carefully  pasted 
on  a  sheet  of  card-board  and  kept  before  the  mir 
ror,  that  it  may  attract  his  attention  and  arouse  a 
genuine  satisfaction  in  the  progress  of  the  Colored 
race  since  1865. 

CONDITION    OF    THE    RACE   IN    1863 

Population,  slaves    3,953,760 

Population,  free 487,960 


Total    4,441,720 

Illiteracy 90% 

Value  of  property,  estimated $1,200,000 

Colleges  and  universities   1 

College  graduates,  estimated 30 

Physicians  and  pharmacists 0 

15 


16  Chums  and  Brothers 

Lawyers     0 

Banks  owned  by  Negroes   0 

Number  of  Negro  towns 0 

Number  of  newspapers 1 

Number  of  churches  owned 400 

Value  of  church  property,  estimated  at  .  .$500,000 
Membership  of  Negro  churches,  estimated  at  40,000 
Number  of  children  in  schools,  estimated  at  25,000 

A    HALF    CENTURY    OF    FREEDOM,    CONDITIONS    IN    1913 

Total  Negro  population  (U.  S.)    9,828,294 

Homes  owned  by  Negroes 500,000 

Churches  owned  by  Negroes 31,393 

Church  membership    3,207,305 

Sunday  schools    24,380 

Sunday  school  scholars 1,448,570 

Illiteracy,  Census  1910 30.5% 

Value  of  property,  estimated  at   .  .    $1,000,000,000 

Number  of  farms  owned 250,000 

Value  of  church  property $65,000,000 

College  and  University  graduates 8,000 

Professional  men 75,000 

Practising  physicians,  estimated  at 3,500 

Practising   lawyers 1,500 

Number  of  business  men,  estimated  at 50,000 

Children  in  schools    2,000,000 

Number  of  Negro  towns   50 

Number  of  Negro  teachers    30,000 


Fifty   Years  of  Freedom  17 

Land  owned  by  Negroes,  acres 20,000,000 

Or  square  miles 31,000 

Drug  stores 300 

General  store  and  other  enterprises 20,000 

Newspapers  and  periodicals    398 

Hospitals  and  nurse  training  schools 61 

Banks  owned  by  Negroes    72 

Insurance  companies    100 

62.2%  of  all  Negroes  in  the  United  States,  10  years 
of  age  and  over,  are  engaged  in  gainful  occu 
pations. 
Property  owned  by  Negro  secret  societies  $8,000,000 

Capital  stock  in  Negro  banks $2,000,000 

Annual  business  done  by  Negroes   ....  $20,000,000 

The  Illinois  Commission  was  appointed  by  Gov 
ernor  Dunne  in  response  to  an  act  of  the  Forty- 
eighth  General  Assembly  of  Illinois  to  arrange  HALF- 
CENTURY  ANNIVERSARY  OF  NEGRO  FREEDOM. 

An  exposition,  having  reference  to  this  anniver 
sary,  will  be  held  at  the  Exposition  Coliseum,  Chi 
cago,  111.,  during  the  month  of  August,  1915.  It 
is  the  purpose  of  the  commission  to  make  the  ex 
position  a  national  affair. 

Copies  of  this  report  and  other  matter  of  inter 
est  may  be  obtained  by  addressing  the  Illinois  Com 
mission,  Half-Century  of  Negro  Freedom,  128  N. 
La  Salle  Street,  Chicago,  111. 


MRS.   LUCY  E.   CASE 

MRS.  LUCY  E.  CASE,  originally  of  Sutton, 
Mass.,  and  for  forty-five  years  officially  con 
nected  with  the  Atlanta  University,  passed  quietly 
away  at  her  home  in  Charlton  City,  Mass.,  July  19, 
1914.  The  funeral  services  were  held  in  the  Con 
gregational  Church,  Friday  afternoon,  in  the  midst 
of  surroundings  familiar  to  Mrs.  Case  in  her  early 
years,  and  to  which  she  had  returned  when  the  in 
creasing  infirmities  of  advancing  years  prevented 
her  continuing  actively  in  the  work  in  which  she  had 
spent  so  many  useful  years. 

The  simple  service  was  one  that  she,  herself,  had 
planned,  and  which  we  were  glad  to  carry  out.  Dr. 
Horace  Bumstead,  with  whom  Mrs.  Case  worked 
at  the  University  during  much  of  her  time  of  serv 
ice,  outlined  the  life  of  Mrs.  Case,  two  of  the  gradu 
ates  sang  as  she  had  requested  certain  of  the  "Old 
Time  Songs,"  and  each  of  us  spoke  briefly  of  the 
influence  and  large  outcome  of  her  life.  As  one  of 
the  graduates  said,  the  service  was  not  altogether 
one  of  sadness.  There  were  the  clear  air,  the  bright 
sunshine,  the  beauty  of  flowers,  the  song  of  birds, 

18 


Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Case  19 

and  Mrs.  Case.  To  how  many  of  the  students  of 
Atlanta  University  will  the  words  "Mrs.  Case"  call 
up  the  gracious  little  woman  whose  influence  was  so 
marked,  so  pervasive,  and  so  beneficent! 

Mrs.  Case's  early  years  were  spent  in  New  Eng 
land.  Her  father  was  a  thrifty  and  successful 
farmer,  living  upon  the  farm  first  cleared  by  his  an 
cestors,  and  still  in  the  possession  of  descendants 
of  the  original  settler.  As  a  young  girl  Mrs.  Case 
attended  Leicester  Academy,  from  which  she  was 
called  home  at  fourteen  to  the  bedside  of  her  dying 
mother.  This  experience  was  followed  by  six  years 
of  invalidism  which  left  their  impress  upon  her 
fragile  form,  but  also  left  their  influence  upon  her 
Christian  character.  She  knew  suffering  all  her 
life  and  was  made  strong  thereby. 

For  some  time  she  attended  Mount  Holyoke  Sem 
inary  and  came  under  the  influence  of  Mary  Lyon. 
And  who  can  claim  that  this  influence  was  not  per 
petuated  in  the  thirty  years  of  active  service  that 
Mrs.  Case  later  gave  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of 
the  Freedmen?  Perhaps  the  spirit  of  Mary  Lyon 
still  lives  in  hundreds  of  homes,  schools,  and  com 
munities  in  the  South,  Mrs.  Case  herself  being  the 
personality  that  disseminated  the  spirit  that  she 
herself  caught  from  Mary  Lyon. 

The  Mount  Holyoke  life  was  followed  by  her 
marriage.  Her  married  life,  although  brief,  was 
apparently  a  very  happy  one.  To  the  surprise  of 


20  Chums  and  Brothers 

her  Southern  friends,  Mrs.  Case  possessed  consid 
erable  talent  for  versification.  A  poem,  read  at  the 
funeral  and  written  upon  the  anniversary  of  her 
husband's  death,  shows  a  great  deal  of  poetic  in 
sight.  Another  poem,  based  upon  the  story  of  the 
lame  man  at  the  Gate  Beautiful  and  which  had  this 
comment  upon  it,  "A  School  Exercise.  5%  hours," 
may  serve  to  illustrate  something  of  the  pertinacity 
which  she  showed  toward  set  tasks  and  also  some 
thing  of  the  quality  of  her  scholarship. 

The  Civil  War  being  closed,  Mrs.  Case  joined  the 
army  of  teachers  that  went  South  to  the  work  of 
educating  the  Freedmen  for  citizenship.  Under  the 
American  Missionary  Association  she  worked  for 
a  year  at  Macon,  Ga.,  and  for  a  year  at  Albany, 
Ga.  There  are  people  still  living  in  Albany,  who 
recall  the  little  woman  that  somehow  entered  their 
lives  and  left  there  a  deep  New  England  impress. 

Following  the  year  at  Albany,  Mrs.  Case  was  ap 
pointed  a  teacher  in  the  Atlanta  University,  then 
about  to  open  its  doors.  She  was  present  to  meet 
the  first  class  that  entered  the  school  in  1869.  Her 
name  appears  upon  every  catalogue  from  the  first 
to  the  forty-fifth,  either  as  an  active  worker  or  as 
honorary  matron.  Beginning  as  a  teacher  in  many 
lines,  with  the  growing  number  of  pupils  and  the 
better  organization  of  the  work,  finally  she  became 
matron  in  the  Boys'  Hall.  Perhaps  it  was  here 
that  she  did  her  most  useful  and  most  lasting  work. 


Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Case  21 

Many  a  grown  man  living  today  a  useful  and  worthy 
life  looks  back  gratefully  to  a  quiet  interview  with 
Mrs.  Case,  in  which  admonition  for  work  neglected 
or  rebuke  for  wrong  done  or  censure  for  opportu 
nity  wasted  might  close  with  a  talk  of  great  spir 
itual  earnestness,  and  a  prayer  which  left  him  with 
a  great  purpose  awakened. 

The  purpose  that  Mrs.  Case  had  in  her  work  in 
the  Boys7  Hall  (South  Hall)  is  illustrated  by  this 
incident.  I  had  hardly  made  my  entrance  upon  the 
Campus  as  one  of  the  new  teachers,  in  1887,  when 
I  was  invited  into  her  rooms,  and  she  said,  "I  no 
tice  that  you  wear  your  hat  in  South  Hall.  We 
try  to  make  South  Hall  a  home  and  not  a  dormi 
tory,  and  so  we  require  the  boys  to  remove  their 
hats  and  we  expect  the  teachers  to  set  them  the  ex 
ample."  In  all  the  years  since,  I  never  enter  the 
Boys'  Building  without  that  gentle  admonition  com 
ing  to  mind. 

Perhaps  the  strength  of  Mrs.  Case's  character 
is  best  shown  by  the  grace  with  which  she  could 
yield  her  scepter  after  having  for  so  many  years 
held  it.  The  second  matron  of  the  Boys'  Hall  hesi 
tated  a  long  time  before  accepting  the  position, 
knowing  that  the  first  matron  would  remain  among 
the  scenes  where  she  had  ruled  so  long.  "But 
never,"  said  her  successor,  "did  Mrs.  Case,  in  any 
way,  by  look,  word  or  act,  make  the  work  hard  for 
me."  That  is,  when  she  who  had  been  queen,  became 


22  Chums  and  Brothers 

queen-dowager,  she  resigned  absolutely,  so  that  her 
presence  made  easier  and  not  harder  a  position  hard 
enough  in  itself.  And  when  with  advancing  years 
it  seemed  best  that  her  home  should  be  transferred 
from  the  Campus  to  New  England,  she  quietly  ac 
cepted  the  decision  without  a  word  of  complaint, 
though  it  may  be  in  the  spirit  of  the  Apostle  who 
said  "I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  kept  the 
faith."  On  her  sixtieth  birthday,  the  Junior  class 
gave  Mrs.  Case  a  reception  in  the  Girls'  Hall,  which 
some  still  recall.  It  will  please  the  young  women 
of  that  class  to  know  that  the  quotations  selected  by 
each  and  written  upon  cards  and  bound  with  a  rib 
bon  and  presented  at  that  time,  were  among  Mrs. 
Case's  effects,  and  a  number  of  them  were  read  at 
the  funeral.  The  closing  quotation  expresses  per 
haps,  the  attitude  of  Mrs.  Case's  mind  during  her 
closing  years. 

For  age  is  opportunity  no  less 
Than  youth  itself,  tho'  in  another  dress ; 
And  as  the  evening  twilight  fades  away, 
The  sky  is  filled  with  stars,  invisible  by  day. 

Two  movements  are  distinctly  discernible  in  the 
South  today  among  the  whites.  One  is  a  forward 
movement,  which  recognizes  the  disabilities  and  re 
strictions  under  which  the  Negro  lives,  and  which 
presses  for  Justice  and  Opportunity  for  the  Freed- 
man's  children,  the  other  a  reactionary  movement 


Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Case  23 

which  seems  to  hark  back  to  the  dominant  senti 
ment  following  the  War.  This  is  a  sentiment  which 
holds  on  to  as  much  of  the  facts  of  slavery  as  the 
new  forms  would  permit.  It  was  this  spirit  which 
required  the  return  of  the  Northern  army  and  which 
led  "to  the  awful  mistakes  and  hardships  of  Recon 
struction."  While  I  would  comment  upon  these  as 
"both  real  and  fancied,"  I  would  ask  what  there  was 
in  the  work  of  Mrs.  Case  and  of  others  like  her  to 
which  the  most  pronounced  reactionary  can  take 
exception  ? 

Two  sentiments  are  in  the  South  today  concern 
ing  the  Negro.  The  following  quotation  illustrates 
one  of  these: — "The  Negro  is  not  only  here,  but  he 
is  improving  wonderfully  in  education  and  in  the 
acquisition  of  property.  The  statistics  are  beyond 
correcting;  the  fact  is,  that  the  race  is  making 
forward  strides  away  from  gross  illiteracy  and  de 
pendent  poverty."  The  following  quotation  illus 
trates  the  second: — "We  say,"  a  Church  paper  said 
only  a  few  weeks  ago,  "that  in  fifty  years  of  free 
dom  the  Negro  has  advanced  so  little  that  his  con 
dition  is  not  encouraging." 

But  the  writer  goes  on  and  says,  "If  that  be  true, 
it  is  a  grave  indictment  of  us  white  folks,  for  the 
Negro  has  these  fifty  years  accepted  the  conditions 
we  have  furnished  him;  if  there  are  no  encouraging 
signs  after  our  management  of  him  for  fifty  years, 
the  difficulty  lies  with  the  management."  If  the 


24  Chums  and  Brothers 

Negro  in  freedom  has  failed,  Mrs.  Hammond  places 
the  failure  upon  the  Southern  whites.  But  Dr. 
Dillard  refers  to  the  statistics  to  show  that  the 
Negro  has  made  forward  strides.  An  average  of 
the  two  views  might  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Negro  has  made  progress,  but  would  have  advanced 
farther  under  a  more  sympathetic  attitude  and  man 
agement  in  the  South.  This  leads  to  the  inevitable 
conclusion  that  such  progress  as  the  Negro  has  made 
is  the  result  of  an  innate  capacity  for  progress,  plus 
the  influence  of  that  body  of  trained  teachers  from 
the  North  who  in  the  past  half  century  have  been 
teaching  Negro  youth.  Of  these  Mrs.  Case  is  but 
one  significant  example. 

The  passing  of  Mrs.  Case  in  a  sense  closes  an  era 
in  the  history  of  the  Freedmen.  Mrs.  Case  was 
probably  the  last  survivor  of  the  little  band  that  in 
'69  opened  for  the  first  time  the  doors  of  Atlanta 
University.  Perhaps  with  her  death  an  era  closes 
in  which  the  "forward  movement"  of  the  colored 
race  has  been  accomplished  by  the  Negro  himself, 
aided  by  his  Northern  friends  and  held  back,  as  Mrs. 
Hammond  suggests,  by  "Southern  management." 

May  it  not  be  that  the  new  half-century  shall  see 
to  it  that  not  two  but  three  forces  are  cooperating 
for  the  solution  of  that  vexing  problem  known  as 
"the  Southern  problem."  In  this  solution,  we  count 
first  "the  innate  capacity  of  the  Negro  for  progress"  ; 
second,  a  more  sympathetic  management  on  the 


Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Case  25 

part  of  the  white  South,  as  shown  by  the  forward 
movement  referred  to  above ;  and  third,  the  con 
tinued  assistance  of  the  North.  The  result  will  be 
an  ever-widening  securing  of  Justice  and  Opportu 
nity  for  all  the  sons  and  daughters  of  all  the  nation 
alities  and  races  that  call  this  broad  land  "our 
Country." 


WHY  NOT  MAKE  FRIENDS? 


WHILE  the  Old  World  is  rocking  with  the 
shock  of  war,  while  many  of  the  nations 
involved  have  to  face  not  only  the  foe  from  with 
out,  but  alienated,  unassimilated  subjects  within, 
who  will  either  refuse  to  fight  or  give  but  half-hearted 
support  to  their  rulers,  the  United  States  has  never 
been  more  united,  more  virtually  one,  than  now." 

This  was  written  by  an  Austrian-Slav,  who  has 
become  an  American  man  of  letters,  and  who  knows 
whereof  he  speaks.  Listen  to  this,  from  an  Amer 
ican  editor  of  a  St.  Louis  paper: 

"We  have  in  this  country  a  wonderful  mixture  of 
races,  but  the  population  does  not  remain  mixed. 
The  differences  disappear.  Many  kinds  of  metal 
go  into  the  melting  pot,  but  only  one  kind  comes 
away.  The  children  of  Germans,  Italians,  Hunga 
rians,  Poles,  Greeks,  Syrians,  and  Jews  from  the 
cities  of  the  Pale  mingle  in  our  streets,  and  in  our 
schools,  and  come  out  singing  the  same  songs,  cheer 
ing  the  same  flag,  reverencing  the  same  heroes,  and 
holding  the  same  essential  ideas  of  liberty  and  gov 
ernment." 

26 


Why  Not  Make  Friends?  27 

"Europe  has  the  same  mixture,  but  the  melting 
pot  is  cold.  The  races  live  side  by  side,  clinging 
tenaciously  each  to  its  own  language,  and  dress, 
and  social  customs  and  traditions  and  prejudices. 
.  .  .  And  this  because  these  mixtures  in  Europe  are 
not  self-governing,  .  .  .  but  one  race  is  lording  it 
over  another  and  forcing  that  other  to  do  things 
that  it  would  not  do  if  it  were  free." 

If  Central  Europe  must  go  to  war  with  Eastern 
Europe  and  Western  Europe  it  would  help  the  of 
fensive  if  there  were  no  Slav-problem  in  Austria- 
Hungary,  no  Polish  problem  on  the  eastern  boundary 
of  Germany,  and  no  subject-French  in  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  on  the  western.  That  is,  if  Germany  has 
been  preparing  for  forty  years,  as  we  understand, 
for  the  war  she  so  suddenly  thrust  upon  Europe  when 
she  attempted  to  cross  the  neutral  border  of  Bel 
gium,  she  would  have  done  well  during  that  time  by 
some  method  of  benevolent  assimilation  to  have  made 
friends  with  the  aliens  within  her  boundaries. 

As  to  the  defensive,  the  warring  factions  of  Eng 
land  flowed  together  at  once  upon  the  declaration  of 
war.  But  Great  Britain  has  a  delicate  situation 
in  South  Africa  and  a  similar  situation  in  India, 
which  today  may  make  England  wish  that  for  the 
last  half-century  she  had  been  cultivating  friend 
ship  with  the  400,000,000  of  her  darker  Aryan  sub 
jects,  instead  of  treating  them  with  "a  racial  ar 
rogance  which  looks  with  contempt  upon  those  of 


28  Chums  and  Brothers 

all  shades  of  color  and  which  denies  to  them,  not 
only  equality  with  (Englishmen)  but  also  some  of 
the  most  elementary  rights  of  fellow-citizens,"  so 
that  "membership  in  the  British  Empire  carries  with 
it  neither  equality  of  rights  nor  parity  of  oppor 
tunity  (to  the  Indian)." 

How  much  more  effective  would  be  Russia  in  her 
attack  upon  Germany,  if  she  could  count  upon  a 
steadfast  loyalty  on  the  part  of  Finland,  or  of  the 
12,000,000  Russian  Poles  who  separate  Russia  from 
Germany!  How  the  Czar  must  recall  his  broken 
pledges  to  both  as  he  issues  new  ukases  of  privilege 
and  autonomy!  How  the  Russian  Bureaucracy 
must  wish  that  a  friendly  interest  had  guided  them 
in  the  handling  of  the  great  body  of  the  Russian 
serfs,  so  that  by  "equality  of  rights  and  parity  of 
opportunity"  they  might  have  become  as  efficient 
soldiers,  man  for  man  as  are  the  German  soldiery 
in  the  present  crisis. 

No  war  reaches  the  conclusion  that  was  antici 
pated  at  its  beginning.  A  contemporary  calls  at 
tention  to  these  facts :  that  Slavery  ceased  in  the 
United  States  with  the  close  of  the  war  of  '61-'65, 
a  result  not  planned  by  either  party  to  the  war; 
that  the  French  Republic  arose  out  of  the  Franco- 
Prussian  War  of  1870,  another  result  far  remote 
from  the  thought  of  either  nation;  that  the  Rus 
sian  Duma  was  the  most  unexpected  outcome  of 
the  Russo-Japanese  war.  What  will  be  the  out- 


Why  Not  Make  Friends?  29 

come  of  the  present  war,  perhaps  one  will  prophesy 
in  the  line  of  his  hopes.  To  me  this  is  certain,  that 
however  the  resort  to  arms  may  culminate,  it  will 
be  followed  by  a  great  development  of  the  Demo 
cratic  idea  in  Europe,  as  upon  every  nation  in 
volved  will  be  pressed  the  great  desirability  of  having 
friends  within  the  nation's  borders. 

But  is  the  United  States  so  "virtually  one"  that 
it  needs  not  the  lesson  of  "making  friends"? 

The  editor  quoted  above  noted  that  "an  assistant 
superintendent  of  schools  in  St.  Louis  was  enter 
taining  a  visiting  German  educator.  He  took  him 
to  a  room  where  various  kinds  of  Slavs  and  Orien 
tals  were  mixed  in  a  wonderful  manner  with  a 
sprinkling  of  children  from  native  American  fam 
ilies.  Wishing  to  show  the  visitor  the  large  num 
ber  of  foreign  children  present  he  asked  the  Amer 
ican  children  to  rise.  Every  child  stood  on  his 
feet." 

There  you  have  it!  The  melting  pot  in  opera 
tion.  But  no  colored  child  stood  on  his  feet.  And 
why?  There  were  none  there.  All  were  native  born 
Americans.  They  sing  the  same  hymns,  salute  the 
same  flag,  venerate  the  same  heroes  as  do  the  chil 
dren  of  the  European  immigrant  and  the  native 
born  white  child.  But  mark  the  difference!  without 
that  commingling,  fraternizing,  socializing,  and 
democratizing  influence  which  moulds,  welds,  and 
fuses  the  representatives  of  different  European  na- 


30  Chums  and  Brothers 

tionalities    into    the    body    of    American    citizens. 

"I  look  upon  Germany,"  said  a  German-Ameri 
can,  "as  a  man  looks  upon  his  mother;  I  look  upon 
the  United  States  as  a  man  looks  upon  his  bride." 
By  implication,  he  would  forsake  all  for  his  bride. 
The  Negro  is  both  son  and  bridegroom  to  this  his 
native  country.  What  are  we  doing  for  the  Negro  ? 

The  mayor  of  Luxemburg  rolled  his  automobile 
across  a  bridge  and  opposed  himself  to  an  advanc 
ing  German  army  corps.  He  held  out  the  treaty 
in  which  the  great  nations  of  Europe  covenanted 
to  respect  the  neutrality  of  Luxemburg.  The  Ger 
man  officer  drew  his  revolver  and  said,  "My  orders 
are  to  go  on."  The  Psalmist  asks, 

"Lord,  who  shall  abide  in  thy  tabernacle?  Who 
shall  dwell  in  thy  holy  hill?" 

And  one  answer  is: — "He  (the  nation?)  that 
sweareth  to  his  (its?)  own  hurt  and  changeth  not." 

Now  the  saddest  thing  of  this  European  war  is 
the  downfall  of  the  expectation  that  the  world  had 
somehow  reached  the  point  that  international 
treaties  would  be  held  sacred.  How  about  guaran 
tees  within  the  nation?  The  Negro  feels,  rightly 
or  wrongly,  that  toward  him  national  guarantees 
have  no  meaning.  A  great  war  centered  around 
him.  A  dozen  years  of  stormy  history  followed,  in 
which  certain  phrases  apparently  in  his  interest  be 
came  a  part  of  the  constitution  of  his  native  land. 
At  the  outcome,  he  thought  then,  and  still  thinks 


Why  Not  Make  Friends?  31 

himself,  a  citizen.  But  he  finds  himself  the  subject 
of  special  legislation  in  which  he  has  no  voice,  the 
victim  of  restrictions  to  which  no  immigrant  from 
Europe  is  subjected,  and  there  are  frequent  hints 
of  further  limitations  upon  the  sphere  of  his  ac 
tivities. 

And  the  Negro  wonders  "Why?"  and  asks  if  he 
is  always  to  be  outside  the  melting  pot.  But  if  the 
unthinkable  should  have  to  be  thought  out,  if  the 
unimaginable  should  become  actual,  if  the  President 
of  the  United  States  should  call  upon  every  able- 
bodied  man  from  18  to  45  years  to  volunteer  to  de 
fend  the  country  against  a  combined  invasion  on 
the  part  of  Canada,  the  nations  of  Europe,  those 
of  South  America,  and  those  of  the  Orient,  shoulder 
to  shoulder  with  the  native  born  Anglo  Saxon  sol 
dier,  and  with  the  European  immigrant  soldier  made 
American  through  the  "melting  pot,"  would  be  the 
native  born  Negro  soldier.  In  which  of  the  wars  of 
his  country  has  he  ever  been  absent? 

I  prophesy,  Laddie,  a  remarkable  development  of 
the  Democratic  idea  in  European  countries  as  the 
result  of  the  present  war.  This  will  show  itself  by 
the  taking  into  partnership  in  economical,  educa 
tional,  governmental  affairs  all  the  members  of  the 
races  that  live  within  the  nation.  Why  may  not 
this  country  learn  this  same  lesson  out  of  the  Eu 
ropean  war,  and  cultivate  friendship  with  all  the 
children  of  men  who  reside  within  our  borders? 

September,  1914. 


BEING  A  FRESHMAN 

MY  dear 
Your  mother  writes  me  that  she  has  seen 
you  in  your  college  home;  that  you  are  in  the  most 
beautiful  college  town  she  has  ever  seen;  that  she 
has  seen  the  Athletic  field,  the  golf  links,  and  the 
commons;  and  she  has  decided  that  you  were  right 
in  going  to  a  so  called  small  college  and  in  not  al 
lowing  yourself  to  be  lost  in  a  large  college.  She 
says  that  you  have  made  the  Freshman  base-ball 
team  and  that  you  are  enrolled  in  the  subsidiary 
choir.  She  also  notes  that  you  have  only  fifteen  in 
your  class,  and  that  instead  of  meeting  instructors 
you  meet  the  head  professors.  Best  of  all  from 
the  mother's  standpoint,  that  you  recently  made 
"B"  in  German.  All  this  appeals  to  her,  and  I  am 
not  sure  but  that  she  has  correctly  diagnosed  the 
case  of  the  small  college  against  the  large  college. 

I  rejoice  with  you  and  for  you,  my  dear  boy,  that 
you  enter  college  halls  under  such  pleasant  sur 
roundings  and  with  such  awakening  opportunities. 
President  Hyde  in  answer  to  the  question: 

"Does   College  Pay?" 
says: 

32 


Being  a  Freshmcm  33 

"To  be  at  home  in  all  lands  and  all  ages ;  to  count 
Nature  a  familiar  acquaintance  and  Art  an  inti 
mate  friend ;  to  get  a  standard  for  the  appreciation 
of  other  men's  work  and  the  criticism  of  one's  own; 
to  carry  the  key  of  the  world's  library  in  one's 
pocket;  and  to  feel  its  resources  in  whatever  he  un 
dertakes,  to  make  hosts  of  friends  among  the  men 
of  one's  age  who  are  to  be  leaders  in  all  walks  of 
life;  to  lose  one's  self  in  generous  enthusiasm  and 
co-operation  with  others  for  common  ends ;  to  learn 
manners  from  students  who  are  gentlemen;  and  to 
form  character  from  professors  who  are  Christians, 
these  are  the  returns  of  a  college  for  the  best  four 
years  of  one's  life." 

I  do  not  know  that  Dr.  Hyde's  answer  needs  any 
expanding.  But  I  will  emphasize  two  of  his  points. 
And  first,  if  you  may  not  expect  to  be  a  leader  in 
the  world  of  action  you  will  in  your  college  life 
make  "hosts  of  friends"  among  those  who  are  to  be 
leaders.  You  will  come  to  appreciate  that  the  dif 
ference  is  not  one  of  kind  but  one  of  degree.  In 
fact,  greatness  and  leadership  are  so  frequently  mat 
ters  of  accident,  that  you  may  feel  some  day,  and 
feel  properly,  that  but  for  accident  you  might  have 
become  as  great  as  is  your  friend ;  and  that  you  ap 
preciate  his  greatness  because  his  qualities  are  yours. 

And  again,  you  can  hardly  expect  to  meet  later 
in  life  a  set  of  men  of  whom  you  can  be  so  sure  as 
you  can  be  of  your  college  professors  and  teach- 


34<  Chums  and  Brothers 

ers.  Those  men  are  not  "working  you."  They  are 
working  for  you.  And  to  live  in  daily  contact  with 
men  whose  sole  purpose  is  a  generous  giving  of  them 
selves  for  your  enlargement  and  future  usefulness, 
is  to  live  about  as  near  heaven  as  one  can  on  this 
earth.  And  the  influence  of  such  contact  ought 
to  be  to  send  you  out  into  the  business  of  life  ready 
to  render  disinterested  service  to  your  generation. 

I  think  that  I  shall  put  first  among  all  the  ad 
vantages  of  college  years,  this  daily  contact  with 
vigorous  young  life,  out  of  which  is  to  develop  the 
men  of  the  future ;  and  second,  this  contact  with  the 
men  of  the  present,  men  who  are  masters  in  their 
departments  and  who  will  not  only  lead  you  into 
the  fields  of  knowledge,  but  who  will  influence  your 
own  thinking  and  character  by  their  own  standards. 

But  there  is  a  third  advantage  which  will  come 
to  you  and  which  perhaps  looms  larger  before  you 
than  do  any  of  the  others  cited  in  the  quotation 
above.  You  will  recall  a  conversation  around  your 
mother's  table  one  evening  in  the  summer  just  closed 
when  three  of  us  were  discussing  your  opening  col 
lege  career.  And  one  of  you  remarked,  ...  it 
was  not  you,  nor  was  it  I: — 

"You  are  going  to  college  to  get  a  diploma.  Get 
it  by  any  means  that  you  can ;  but  get  it." 

It  was  a  startling  remark.  We  wondered  if  it  rep 
resented  college  ethics,  even  as  a  similar  remark, 
"Get  money,  my  boy.  Get  it  honestly  if  you  can; 


Bemg  a  Freshman  35 

but  get  it,"  is  said  to  represent  certain  forms  of 
business  ethics. 

But  this  does  lead  to  the  thought  that  in  our 
modern  life  the  possession  of  a  college  degree  as 
evidenced  by  a  college  diploma  carries  with  it  cer 
tain  economic  and  social  advantages  which  give  the 
parchment  a  tremendous  value  in  the  eyes  of  those 
who  do  not  hold  it  or  who  are  seeking  it.  One  of 
New  York's  most  successful  lawyers  was  so  impressed 
with  this  that  he  seriously  contemplated  in  his  later 
years  throwing  aside  his  very  lucrative  practice  that 
he  might  enter  college  halls  and  graduate. 

This  valuation  is  not  inherent  in  the  diploma  it 
self.  It  is  not  a  valuation  placed  upon  it  by  col 
lege  faculties  or  boards  of  trustees.  It  is  a  valua 
tion  which  has  come  partly  as  the  outcome  of  the 
changing  idea  of  the  college  and  partly  because 
of  the  men-out-of-college  themselves.  Your  grand 
father's  diploma  was  a  certificate  of  entrance  upon 
a  professional  school  through  which  he  made  his  en 
trance  upon  his  professional  career.  In  his  day 
the  college  was  practically  a  fitting  school.  Today 
it  is  largely  an  end  in  itself.  It  is  possible  that 
the  development  of  the  university  idea  may  bring 
the  college  back  to  its  earlier  scope.  But  I  rather 
doubt  it.  For  illustration,  the  Harvard  man  is  he 
who  has  received  his  bachelor-degree  at  Harvard. 
This  makes  him  a  Harvard  man  as  no  higher  de 
gree  can. 


36  Chums  and  Brothers 

The  possession  of  the  bachelor's  degree  will  later 
give  you  entrance  into  any  college  or  university 
club  in  any  city  in  which  you  may  reside.  It  intro 
duces  you  to  the  entire  circle  of  college  men  in  the 
place.  It  becomes  a  letter  of  recommendation 
which  may  open  up  to  you  valuable  social  or  busi 
ness  opportunities.  It  puts  you  into  an  elect  and 
desirable  company  as  nothing  else  can. 

There  lies  upon  my  desk  a  report,  containing  a 
long  list  of  names  of  persons  more  or  less  notable. 
Their  names  give  recommendation  to  any  organiza 
tion.  Most  of  the  names  are  followed  by  letters  in 
dicating  scholarship  or  honorary  degrees.  Follow 
ing  one  name  are  the  letters  D.  D.  and  Ph.  D.  I 
know  that  they  do  not  belong  there.  By  what  fell 
scheme  in  the  mind  of  the  printer's  devil  they  got 
there  may  never  be  revealed.  But  there  they  are. 
And  their  presence  in  a  place  where  they  do  not  be 
long,  discounts,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  the  en 
tire  list  of  degrees  in  the  report. 

Imagine  the  man  who  possesses  a  college  degree 
that  he  knows  he  has  not  earned.  He  finds  himself 
received  as  belonging  to  the  college  cult  with  all  its 
titles  and  advantages.  Must  he  not  wonder  how 
many  of  the  others  are  like  himself,  grafters,  and 
must  he  not  raise  the  question: — Is  not  the  whole 
thing  based  upon  fraud,  and  has  it  any  real  value 
of  its  own? 

Dr.  Brown,  of  Yale,  writes : — 


Being  a  Freshman  37 

"The  young  fellow  at  college  finds  himself  sud 
denly  injected  into  a  crowd  of  students  who  are 
foes  to  sobriety,  clean  living,  intellectual  achieve 
ment." 

Despite  the  opportunities  and  advantages  al 
luded  to  in  the  body  of  my  note  these  are  some  of 
the  temptations  that  go  with  college  life.  Perhaps 
the  most  insidious  of  these  is  the  temptation  to  de 
mand  the  diploma  without  earning  it. 

Some  one  has  described  a  college  faculty  as  "a 
body  of  men  who  having  received  degrees,  make  it 
hard  for  other  men  to  get  them."  It  is  the  duty 
of  the  faculty  to  shield  the  great  body  of  graduate 
college  men  from  unworthy  additions,  whether  from 
the  standpoint  of  character,  native  ability  or  in 
tellectual  achievement. 

Amid  all  the  distraction  and  allurements  of  col 
lege  life  may  you  come  to  your  last  Commencement, 
a  knight,  without  fear  and  without  reproach. 
Faithfully  your  friend. 


THREE  CRITICAL  POINTS  IN  AMERICAN 
HISTORY 

MODERN  history  is  written  in  the  cartoon.  It 
has  been  reported  that  as  Boss  Tweed,  of 
Tammany  notoriety,  reached  the  coast  of  Spain  in 
his  flight  from  justice  in  New  York,  he  was  arrested, 
not  because  of  papers  issued  against  him  but  be 
cause  a  cartoon,  published  in  a  New  York  paper, 
represented  him  as  fleeing  with  a  bag  of  gold.  This 
cartoon  had  met  the  eye  of  a  Spanish  official  who 
recognized  the  likeness  in  the  drawing  and  who  held 
him  while  the  United  States  was  notified  that  they 
held  the  man  safe  in  custody. 

A  recent  cartoon  represents  the  Bull  Moose  as 
dead  and  lying  on  his  bier  covered  with  a  shroud. 
A  floral  tribute  lies  upon  his  breast  bearing  the 
words,  "Rest  in  Peace."  The  letters  "T.  R."  upon 
a  card  tied  to  the  ribbon  on  the  tribute  indicate  the 
donor.  The  Democratic  donkey,  with  a  wide 
mourning  band  upon  his  hat,  stands  weeping,  and 
says, 

"He  was  my  best  friend." 

The  G.  O.  P.  elephant  is  dancing  and  singing: — 

"Ah!    Ha!    I  did  it." 

38 


Three  Critical  Points  in  American  History         39 

And  he  carries  in  his  hand  (?)  a  big  stick  with 
the  legend:  "Nov.  Election,  1914." 

And  the  gopher  looks  on  disconsolately  and  re 
marks:  "What  shall  we  do  without  him  in  1916?" 

Years  ago  in  the  city  of  Boston  and,  I  believe,  on 
its  then  main  street,  a  young  man  found  himself 
suddenly  one  of  a  mob  that  was  leading  another  with 
a  rope  around  his  neck  to  a  convenient  lamp-post. 
Fortunately  the  police  interfered  or  it  might  have 
gone  hard  that  night  with  William  Lloyd  Garrison. 
But  the  incident  remained  in  the  mind  of  Wendell 
Phillips  and  led  him  to  the  next  meeting  of  the 
Abolition  Party  in  Old  Fanueil  Hall,  "The  Cradle 
of  Liberty,"  at  which  time  he  spoke  words  that  still 
burn.  It  is  rather  the  fashion  in  this  day  to  decry 
the  work  of  that  little  band  of  agitators  known  as 
the  "Abolitionist  Party,"  and  the  constructive  work 
of  Lincoln  and  of  Sumner  is  held  up  in  contrast. 
This  is  all  right,  but  it  must  be  recalled  that  Phillips 
and  Garrison  could  do  no  constructive  work.  Up 
to  the  night  when  Wendell  Phillips  took  up  the  cause 
of  the  slave,  there  was  no  position  in  the  public 
service  of  Massachusetts  to  which  he  might  not  have 
aspired.  After  that  first  fatal  address  in  which  he 
took  sides  on  the  great  social  problem  before  the 
country,  there  was  nothing  left  for  him  but  to  be 
come  a  prophetic  "voice."  And  how  effective  a 
"voice"  he  became,  the  history  of  the  past  sixty 
years  attests. 


40  Chums  and  Brothers 

Years  passed.  The  scene  has  shifted  to  Chicago 
where  the  Republican  party  sat  in  Convention  to 
nominate  its  presidential  candidates.  Against  the 
protests  of  a  small  but  influential  minority,  James 
G.  Blaine,  of  Maine,  was  nominated  as  the  party 
leader.  That  night,  George  William  Curtis,  editor 
and  an  essayist  of  no  mean  order,  the  most  popular 
lecturer  upon  the  American  lecture  platform,  and 
having  within  his  grasp  any  political  preferment 
that  he  might  have  asked  at  the  hands  of  the  Re 
publican  Party  in  the  state  of  New  York,  bolted  the 
nomination. 

All  that  was  said  of  George  William  Curtis  and 
his  small  company  of  followers  in  the  daily  papers 
of  that  time  would  be  interesting  reading  now.  The 
word  "Mugwump"  is  one  addition  to  our  English 
Dictionary  that  remains.  Just  why  George  William 
Curtis  bolted  the  nomination  of  Blaine  I  do  not  now 
recall.  Perhaps  it  was  Elaine's  record  in  Congress. 
But  in  that  "bolt,"  Independency  and  Mugwumpery 
became  respectable  and  both  parties  have  ever  since 
had  an  eye  to  the  independent  voter,  who,  having 
no  hope  of  office  or  of  consideration  of  any  sort 
from  party  leaders,  votes  for  men  and  measures,  and 
has  become  the  balance  wheel  in  our  political  system. 

Again  the  scene  returns  to  Lake  Michigan,  and 
again  the  Republican  convention  is  in  progress. 
Personally  I  felt  it  a  mistake  that  "The  hat  was 
put  in  the  ring."  And  yet,  Mr.  Taft  had  made  two 


Three  Critical  Points  in  American  History         41 

serious  mistakes,  one  with  the  tariff  and  one  with 
the  conservation  policies  bequeathed  him  by  his 
predecessor  in  office.  While  one  cannot  say  but  that 
Mr.  Taft  might  have  been  elected  to  succeed  him 
self,  had  Mr.  Roosevelt  kept  his  hat  out  of  the  ring, 
it  is  extremely  improbable.  The  call  to  Mr.  Roose 
velt  to  enter  the  contest  was  extremely  loud.  The 
election  showed  that  he  was  the  party  candidate, 
though  not  the  candidate  of  the  organization.  The 
"steam-roller"  was  applied.  Mr.  Roosevelt  fol 
lowed  the  example  of  George  William  Curtis  and 
bolted.  The  Progressive  Party  was  formed. 

The  popular  vote  and  the  vote  in  the  electoral 
college  was  divided  in  the  order,  Wilson,  Roosevelt, 
Taft.  Whether  Mr.  Roosevelt  could  have  coralled 
all  the  Taft  vote  had  the  latter  been  eliminated  from 
the  contest  and  so  have  succeeded  Mr.  Taft  can 
never  be  known.  There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that 
he  controlled  a  large  part  of  the  Republican  vote 
that  would  have  gone  to  Mr.  Wilson  had  the  con 
test  not  become  triangular.  Without  question,  Mr. 
Wilson  is  a  minority  president  because  of  the  Pro 
gressive  movement  in  the  election  of  1912. 

The  cartoon  referred  to  above  suggests  that  the 
Progressive  Party  is  dead.  This  may  be  so. 
Whether  it  is  or  not,  it  is  more  than  likely  that  its 
founder  and  head  has  made  so  many  political  ene 
mies  that  there  is  nothing  for  him  politically  in  the 
future.  Nevertheless,  the  Democratic  Party  at  its 


42  Chums  and  Brothers 

Baltimore  Convention  learned  the  lesson  of  the  bolt 
at  Chicago,  and  the  Democratic  organization  did 
not  dare  to  override  the  voters  of  the  party  by  any 
steam-roller  methods.  And  it  will  be  a  long  time 
before  any  other  party  organization  sets  itself 
against  the  party  wishes. 

The  Good  Book  asks: — "Which  of  your  prophets 
have  your  fathers  not  stoned?  And  ye  build  them 
their  monuments."  Perhaps  it  would  be  good  advice 
to  say: — "Do  not  become  a  prophet  unless  you  are 
willing  to  be  stoned."  Yet  the  progress  of  religion, 
of  freedom,  and  of  social  uplift  goes  on  because 
there  are  prophets  who  accept  the  stoning  with  no 
special  expectation  of  the  monument.  These  are 
the  men  whose  sole  interest  in  in  the  progress  of 
reform. 

One  of  the  strange  facts  in  all  reform  is  that 
the  opposition  remains  out  of  power,  but  its  prin 
ciples  become  a  part  of  the  policy  of  the  party  in 
power,  and  the  opposition  carries  its  points  though 
it  remains  the  opposition.  Let  no  one  enter  the 
ranks  of  the  Reformer  and  expect  to  be  popular  with 
his  generation  or  to  reach  any  preferment  at  its 
hands.  For  him  there  awaits  "Crucifixion,"  but  the 
Cause  moves  on. 

December,  1914. 


"THE  TOGA  VIRILIS" 

A  STAID  New  England  household  was  awak 
ened  rudely  one  night  just  after  midnight  by 
the  loud  cry :  "There's  a  man  in  the  house !  There's 
a  man  in  the  house  1"  The  startled  inmates  sprang 
from  their  couches,  hastily  threw  on  all  sorts  of 
wraps,  made  a  quick  survey  of  the  house  from  attic 
to  cellar.  As  the  entire  household  gathered  in  the 
dining-room,  the  father  looked  sternly  at  his  oldest 
son  and  said: 

"What  is  all  this  noise  that  you  have  made  about 
a  man  in  the  house?" 

The  son  lifted  himself  to  his  greatest  height,  threw 
back  his  head  proudly  and  said: 

"Father,  I  am  the  man  in  the  house.  I  was  twen 
ty-one  at  midnight." 

How  well  I  recall,  Laddie,  my  own  twenty-first 
birthday.  How  keenly  alive!  no  longer  boy,  but 
man !  I  could  sue  and  be  sued  in  my  own  name.  I 
could  be  arrested,  tried  and  convicted,  responsible 
for  my  own  acts.  No  longer  any  parental  or  fam 
ily  shelter  for  me!  At  that  moment  the  "toga 
virilis"  of  our  American  citizenship  descended  upon 
me.  There  were  its  rights,  its  privileges  and  its  im- 

43 


44  Chums  and  Brothers 

munities.  And  sobering  thought,  there  were  its  ob 
ligations,  its  duties,  its  responsibilities.  I  could 
make  and  unmake  careers;  I  could  indicate  lines  of 
governmental  action. 

Lad,  I  congratulate  you  that  on  the  morrow  in 
your  father's  house  a  boy  will  step  into  manhood. 
In  that  chamber  that  you  and  your  brother  have 
occupied  so  many  years  the  transformation  will  take 
place.  It  will  not  be  your  brother.  It  will  be  you. 
Upon  you,  boy,  tomorrow,  as  upon  myself  years 
ago,  the  "toga  virilis"  will  fall  and  you.  .  .  . 

Why  do  you  interrupt  my  thought?  Whenever, 
boy,  did  my  imagination  run  riot  over  you  and  about 
you  and  for  you,  that  you  did  not  put  in  the  mean 
rejoinder!  Manhood  for  you  an  "iridescent 
dream!"  No  "toga  virilis"  for  you.  And  you  hand 
me  "the  white  primary"? 

Is  there  no  civic  "manhood"  for  you?  The 
"white  primary,"  boy,  is  that  move  on  the  political 
chess-board,  by  which  the  faction  of  the  South  in 
power  had  made  "a  check-mate"  to  keep  itself  in 
perpetual  power.  And  I  confess  I  do  not  see  the 
move  which  will  break  the  situation  and  release  the 
"king."  But  let  the  figure  go.  Is  there  no  com 
fort  anywhere?  Must  the  situation  go  on  forever? 
Well!  forever  is  a  long  time!  And  "many  a  well 
laid  plan  of  mice  and  men"  has  "gang  aft  agley." 

Does  it  occur  to  you,  that  the  state  that  in  '61 
entered  upon  a  great  civil  war  to  keep  you  at  your 


"The  Toga  Virttis"  45 

then  constitutional  valuation  of  three-fifths  of  a  man 
somehow  out  of  that  conflict  elevated  you  to  become 
five-fifths  of  a  man?  And  that  state  would  put  up 
a  strenuous  fight  if  there  were  any  movement  on 
the  part  of  the  national  government  to  reduce  you 
to  that  valuation  in  national  affairs  which  your  state 
puts  upon  you  in  matters  local.  If  the  matter 
were  not  serious  it  would  be  humorous.  Whenever 
before  in  all  history,  in  the  realm  of  science,  eco 
nomics  or  civics,  did  a  man  or  a  state  both  "eat 
its  cake  and  save  it"?  And  yet  that  is  what  the 
south  did  before  '61,  and  what  it  is  doing  since. 
Your  racial  valuation  prior  to  the  war  was  1,000,- 
000  out  of  your  total  number  of  3,000,000  in  the 
matter  of  state  representation  in  national  inter 
ests.  Today,  your  racial  valuation  is  man  for  man, 
so  that  your  state  and  your  states  in  the  south  have 
a  representation  in  Washington  based  upon  8,000,- 
000  and  more  of  your  folk.  In  your  state  every 
man  of  the  dominant  race  counts  as  two  and  one- 
third  northern  men  in  national  affairs.  In  this 
state,  the  ratio  is  fifteen-eighths ;  in  North  Carolina 
about  one  and  a  half;  in  Florida,  one  and  three- 
fourths  ;  in  Alabama  one  and  three-fourths ;  in  Mis 
sissippi  two  and  a  quarter;  in  Louisiana  one  and 
three-fourths;  in  Tennessee  one  and  a  quarter.  It 
would  seem  that  some  day  the  better  sense  of  the 
south  would  say,  "We  have  an  undue  preponderance 
of  power  in  the  national  councils  and  we 


46  Chums  cmd  Brothers 

ought  .  .  ."  But,  Laddie,  when  did  ever  a  people 
willingly  relinquish  power?  Could  the  south  have 
done  this  in  '61  a  great  and  devastating  war  might 
have  been  averted.  Could  it  do  it  today.  .  .  .  Per 
haps  that  is  too  much  to  ask  of  our  human  nature. 

But  be  happy,  boy,  that  your  state  values  you  as 
a  unit  in  its  interests  at  Washington,  though  it  does 
not  seem  to  value  you  even  as  a  fraction  but  rather 
as  a  cipher  in  local  matters ;  though  I  do  believe  that 
the  tax-gatherer  has  his  own  valuation  upon  you. 

I  can  not  help  thinking,  my  boy,  that  right  here 
is  a  rift  in  the  cloud.  The  north  is  getting  a  little 
restive.  And  it  may  be  that  such  states  as  Ten- 
nessee^and  North  Carolina  that  have  the  least  ad 
vantage  may  themselves  some  time  realize  the  in 
felicity.  In  the  meantime  other  influences  may  be 
at  work.  Let  me  give  you  a  bit  of  history.  In  my 
own  state  in  my  young  manhood  there  arose  a  set 
of  young  men,  born  to  the  purple,  members  by  in 
heritance  to  all  the  traditions  of  the  Republican 
party.  They  were  ambitious  of  preferment  within 
the  party.  And  when  the  fellows  ahead  of  them 
should  all  have  died  off  then  their  turn  would  come. 
But  there  were  too  many  in  the  ranks  ahead  to  hold 
out  an  alluring  prospect.  By  the  time  the  older 
men  were  taken  care  of  politically  they  themselves 
would  largely  have  passed  off  the  stage.  The  only 
hope  lay  in  a  break.  And  they  left  the  family  party 
and  joined  the  opposition.  They  became  leaders 


"The  Toga  Virttis"  47 

and  most  if  not  all  attained  positions  of  public  pre 
ferment.  One  became  governor  and  succeeded  him 
self.  Senatorial  honors  might  have  become  his,  but 
that  he  died  in  office.  There  is  an  interesting  and 
similar  situation  developing  in  this  very  state. 
Some  of  the  state  electorate  who  did  not  welcome  a 
Democratic  regime  and  who  recognized  that  a  vote 
for  the  Republican  nominee  could  have  no  meaning 
in  the  state  threw  themselves  into  the  third  party 
movement.  They  did  not  elect  a  president.  They 
did  not  expect  to.  But  they  got  counted.  They 
dared  later  to  put  out  an  opposition  state  ticket, 
and  they  carried  thirty  counties.  This  is  only  a 
straw,  but  it  shows  a  wind.  And  some  day  history 
will  repeat  itself  and  a  body  of  strong  and  ambi 
tious  young  men  in  these  southern  states  will  find 
the  ranks  ahead  so  full  that  the  only  hope  of  pre 
ferment  for  them  will  lie  in  building  up  an  opposi 
tion  party. 

The  Irishman,  fresh  from  the  old  country,  and 
having  still  upon  his  boot-heels  the  mud  of  the 
Emerald  Isle,  was  met  upon  landing  by  the  dele 
gation  that  proposed  to  induct  him  into  American 
citizenship.  He  was  sounded  as  to  his  political  con 
victions,  and  when  in  reply  to  his  inquiry,  "Is  there 
a  government  here?"  he  was  told  that  there  was, 
he  said; 

"Then  I'm  agin  it." 

Similarly,  my  lad,  keep  up  your  suffrage  fences 


48  Chwms  cmd  Brothers 

and  whenever  an  opposition  party  lifts  its  head, 
say: 

"I  am  with  it." 

Whenever  in  the  past,  your  folk,  young  man,  have 
expressed  themselves  it  has  been  on  the  side  of  law, 
order,  sobriety  and  public  decency.  If  the  finer  men 
of  the  south  said,  "you  colored  voters  will  help  us 
to  elevate  civic  life"  when  has  the  colored  voter 
failed  to  respond?  Call  to  mind  the  cities  which 
in  the  past  have  had  a  temporary  release  from  the 
city-partnership  with  intemperance;  of  the  educa 
tional  systems  in  cities  and  counties  made  possible 
by  the  votes  of  your  people  combining  with  those 
of  the  whites.  Surely  as  one  reflects  upon  the  past 
and  compares  it  with  the  present,  he  must  recognize 
that  there  is  no  tyranny  to  compare  with  that  of 
the  enfranchised  over  the  unfranchised,  or  the  dis 
franchised.  Nevertheless  whenever  an  opportunity 
offers  to  assist  in  public  betterment  by  your  vote, 
let  your  vote  be  counted. 

It  sometimes  seems  to  me  that  our  southern  white 
friends  are  paying  too  much  attention  to  the  "mint 
and  anise  and  cummin"  and  neglecting  the  "weightier 
matters  of  the  law."  A  recent  Russian  writer  thus 
characterizes  Germany  as  a  nation  that  "from  sup 
plying  the  world  with  the  best  music  and  literature 
and  philosophy  had  become  an  authority  of  uniforms 
and  decorative  dinner-ware.  They  have  fashioned 


"The  Toga  Virmi9  49 

a  great  empire  but  they  have  become  a  small  peo 
ple." 

So  the  south  seems  more  intent  upon  holding  the 
figment  of  power  than  of  developing  a  place  where 
the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
shall  find  living  expression  and  where  there  shall  be 
opportunity  for  all  and  special  privilege  for  none. 

The  Russian  writer  quoted  above  and  who  is  the 
daughter  of  a  man  who  can  call  himself  "Prince" 
in  commenting  upon  the  union  of  the  progressive 
and  the  reactionary  forces  in  Russia,  says: 

"If  progressive  Russia  has  joined  forces  with  re 
actionary  Russia  for  the  moment,  it  is  because  she 
/eels  herself  strong  enough  to  postpone  her  own 
demands."  Even  so  you  can  afford  to  throw  your 
self  with  all  the  influences  that  make  for  civic  bet 
terment  even  if  for  the  moment  "you  postpone  your 
own  demands." 

Laddie,  there  is  a  progressive  south.  I  quote  one 
of  its  spokesmen : 

"If  it  be  true  that  the  Negro  has  advanced  so 
little  in  a  long  fifty  years,  that  is  a  grave  indict 
ment  of  us  white  folks,  for  the  Negro  has  for  fifty 
years  accepted  the  conditions  we  have  furnished 
him.  If  there  are  no  encouraging  signs  the  diffi 
culty  may  lie  with  the  management." 

Even  poor,  discouraged,  down-heartened  Elijah, 
was  sent  home  with  the  knowledge  that  he  had  seven 


50  Chums  and  Brothers 

thousand  companions.  Boy,  you  are  not  alone. 
Your  fellows  are  not  alone.  There  are  another 
seven  thousand  in  this  Israel. 

But  I  must  not  forget  my  major  premise,  which 
was  to  congratulate  you  upon  receiving  tomorrow 
the  "toga  virilis."  We  are  told  that  the  old  regime 
was  full  of  poetry  and  of  refined  living;  full  of 
beautiful  women  and  stalwart  men,  who  lived  with 
open  hand  and  a  generous  hospitality.  It  may  be 
so.  Grant  it  if  you  will  for  the  sake  of  argument. 
The  system  had  one  fatal  defect.  It  gave  all  op 
portunity  to  one  man  and  all  handicap  to  another. 
But  times  are  changed  and  the  handicap  is  largely 
removed.  The  opportunity  is  now  yours.  But  with 
the  opportunity  to  carve  a  career  comes  the  re 
sponsibility  to  do  so.  Opportunity  spells  responsi 
bility,  and  you  can  not  now  as  once  you  might  have 
done,  hide  yourself  behind  any  man's  back  with  the 
plea  that 

"God  and  the  world  have  been  too  much  for  me." 

They  also  tell  us,  that  under  the  old  regime  your 
folk  were  carefully  sheltered,  taken  care  of,  beloved. 
We  are  told  that  it  was  a  happy,  care-free  life; 
your  wants  supplied  in  health;  nursing  and  medi 
cine  in  sickness ;  tears  in  death.  Doubtless  it  may 
have  been  so.  There  may  have  been  a  poetry,  an 
affection,  and  a  shelter  in  the  old  regime.  I  never 
was  there. 

But,  my  boy,  infinitely  better  than   the   safety 


"The  Toga   Vires'9  51 

that  comes  from  being  sheltered  is  the  safety  that 
comes  from  being  strong.  It  is  the  difference  be 
tween  innocence  and  virtue.  The  old-time  shelter 
may  have  given  you  the  one.  If  in  this  newer  time 
you  are  to  accomplish  anything,  you  must  achieve 
the  other. 

Laddie,  accept  the  "toga  virilis"  with  all  its  limi 
tations  and  all  its  responsibilities,  and  with  it  and 
by  means  of  it  create  in  yourself  a  virtue  and  a 
strength  that  shall  some  time  show  itself  in  "the 
healing  of  the  nations." 


BREAKING  THE  LAW 

ONCE  on  a  time,  so  the  story  opens,  I  chanced 
to  call  upon  my  friend,  the  druggist,  to  con 
gratulate  him  upon  his  fine  new  store.  I  was  shown 
over  the  establishment,  even  to  the  "sanctum  sanc 
torum,"  where  the  prescriptions  are  filled.  As  we 
sat  there,  my  friend  and  I,  we  discussed  all  the  con 
veniences  and  appliances  for  an  up-to-date  drug 
store.  And  I  remarked,  "Doctor,  I  am  feeling  well. 
I  cannot  ask  you  to  fill  a  prescription  for  me.  But 
I  should  like  to  spend  a  little  money  here  in  honor 
of  your  venture.  Suppose  I  go  out  and  invest  in 
a  glass  of  cherry-phosphate?" 

My  friend  quickly  replied,  "Let  me  send  and  have 
it  brought  in  here." 

But  I  said,  "No,  Doctor,  let  me  go  out  and  drink 
with  the  boys." 

So  I  stood  at  the  fountain  and  allowed  atmos 
pheric  pressure  to  assist  me  in  the  enjoyment  of  a 
cooling  draught,  when  I  happened  to  discover  what 
had  not  been  very  apparent  before,  namely,  that  I 
was  in  Africa,  and  that  I  was  breaking  the  law.  I 
looked  furtively  around  for  the  man  in  blue-coat 

52 


Breaking  the  Law  5& 

and  brass  buttons  who  might  approach,  put  his  hand 
on  me,  and  say,  "Come  with  me." 

As  I  walked  up  the  avenue  I  was  humiliated  as 
I  recalled  my  own  insignificance,  for  I  had  crossed 
a  line  and  nothing  had  happened. 

In  Mrs.  Stowe's  New  England  story,  "Old  Town 
Folks,"  Harry,  the  hero,  as  a  very  little  boy,  had 
a  great  desire  to  do  something  that  he  knew  was 
wrong.  The  temptation  took  the  form  of  a  deter 
mination  to  swear.  But  for  a  long  time  the  lad 
had  never  brought  himself  up  to  the  point  of  ac 
tually  doing  the  thing  that  seemed  so  wicked  and 
so  attractive.  But  one  night,  in  the  attic  cham 
ber,  after  his  mother  had  heard  him  say  his  prayers, 
had  tucked  him  safe  in  bed,  and  all  the  house  had 
become  quiet,  Harry  suddenly  threw  off  the  cover, 
sat  up  in  bed,  and  said  the  thing  he  had  so  longed 
to  say.  Then  with  the  speed  of  thought  he  crouched 
down  under  the  clothes  and  waited.  Alas !  there  was 
for  him  no  whirlwind,  no  earthquake,  no  consuming 
fire,  not  even  a  still  small  voice.  There  was  for  him 
nothing  but  a  humiliating  sense  of  insignificance  in 
that  he  had  defied  the  powers  that  hold  the  universe 
together,  and  his  defiance  had  passed  unnoticed. 

Would  you  gain  an  idea  of  your  real  importance 
in  the  affairs  of  this  world?  Take  a  basin  of  water 
and  place  it  upon  the  table.  Sit  before  it  and, 
leaning  the  head  upon  the  left  hand,  gaze  into  its 


54  Chums  cmd  Brothers 

placid  depths  and  count  one  hundred.  Then  with 
the  right  forefinger  rub  the  forehead  three  times 
back  and  forth.  Now  carefully  put  this  same  fore 
finger  into  the  water  as  deep  as  possible.  Count 
ten  aloud.  Quickly  remove  the  finger  and  look  for 
the  hole  in  the  water.  Its  size  will  indicate  to  you 
a  close  approximation  to  your  indispensability  in 
matters  pertaining  to  this  mundane  sphere.  Thus 
felt  Harry  after  his  little  attempt  at  being  wicked, 
and  thus  I  felt  at  being  unnoticed  after  my  little 
infraction  of  the  law. 

Later  in  that  summer,  I  found  myself  in  another 
southern  city,  in  the  hottest  of  all  the  hot  summer 
weeks.  One  of  those  days  I  was  upon  the  business 
streets  being  shown  the  city  by  some  friends.  It 
was  the  day  when  the  man  who  can  afford  it,  dons 
his  Palm  Beach  suit,  his  white  canvas  shoes,  and 
Panama  hat  and  at  least  looks  cool.  The  heat  was 
bearable  but  the  thirst  was  not.  Finally  I  spoke 
out  in  desperation, 

"Friends,  is  not  there  some  place  where  we  can 
go  and  get  a  cooling  drink?" 

There  was  a  momentary  pause,  and  one  of  my 

hosts  said,  "Why,  yes,  let  us  go  over  to  Cafe 

and  have  some  soda." 

And  so  I  found  myself  in Cafe  not  once  but 

several  times  in  a  somewhat  prolonged  visit  in  that 
city.  And  as  we  sat  around  a  little  table  and  were 


Breaking  the  Law  '55 

served  for  the  last  time,  I  looked  at  the  proprietor 
and  said  to  him: — "Doctor,  are  you  aware  that  you 
are  breaking  the  law  in  serving  me?" 

With  the  quickness  at  repartee  which  so  fre 
quently  makes  me  think  that  there  must  be  a  blood 
bond  between  the  Negro  and  the  Irishman,  one  of 
my  friends  replied, 

"Not  so !  not  so !  the  white  man  can  do  as  he 
pleases,  the  colored  man  must  obey  the  law." 

Still  later  that  summer  I  was  in  another  south 
ern  city.  This  time  I  felt  more  courage.  And  the 
first  time  that  I  was  served  at  a  fountain  I  asked 
again  my  question,  or  rather  I  put  the  same  ques 
tion  in  a  new  way.  This  time  I  said : — 

"Doctor,  do  you  ever  serve  white  people?" 

The  doctor  smiled  slightly  and  replied, 

"Yes,  occasionally  some  people  from  the  country 
drop  in  not  knowing  the  place  and  I  always  serve 
them." 

I  could  not  but  ask  myself  what  would  happen  if 
a  colored  man  should  stray  into  a  white  cafe. 

Still  later  I  chanced  to  be  in  a  town  in  which  only 
the  day  before  the  governor  had  met  an  appoint 
ment  that  called  together  several  thousand  people 
from  far  and  near.  Sitting  in  a  grocery  store  that 
had  a  soft  drink  counter,  my  friend,  the  proprietor, 
spoke  of  the  governor's  visit  and  of  the  crowds  in 
attendance,  and  he  remarked: 

"We  had  a  big  day's  business  yesterday." 


56  CJvums  and  Brothers 

In  reply  I  inquired, 

"Were  there  a  good  many  colored  folk  in  town 
also?" 

"Yes,"  was  his  reply.  But  we  had  a  large  white 
trade  yesterday.  We  always  do  on  such  days." 

I  must  have  looked  incredulous,  for  my  friend 
hastened  to  add, 

"The  country  people  feel  more  at  home  with  us 
than  at  the  white  cafe  up  town." 

Again  I  realized  that  the  white  man  can  do  as  he 
pleases,  and  that  I  had  company  into  the  land  of 
"privilege." 

I  am  not  sure  but  that  the  recitals  above  bring 
up  my  excursions  into  the  land  of  privilege  up  to 
date.  In  a  different  line  is  the  following  incident. 
A  lad,  of  whom  I  think  a  good  deal,  was  obliged 
recently  to  take  a  night  journey  across  two  states. 
Not  being  of  the  privileged  class  he  took  the  colored 
coach.  He  was  the  only  occupant.  I  have  often 
thought  that  if  I  were  the  president  of  a  Southern 
railroad,  I  should  frequently  be  tempted  as  was  the 
boy  Harry,  spoken  of  above,  as  I  found  myself 
daily  obliged  to  haul  coaches  more  or  less  empty  in 
response  to  a  social  demand.  But  since  I  am  not 
a  railroad  president,  the  temptation  does  not  meet 
me  in  just  that  same  way.  The  night  was  cold,  the 
steam-fittings  were  loose,  and  the  car  was  filled  with 
a  cloud  above  and  a  flood  of  water  below.  Never 
theless,  the  lad,  accustomed  to  make  the  best  of  a 


Breaking  the  Law  57 

situation,  prepared  to  spend  an  uncomfortable 
night.  The  conductor  saw  the  infelicity,  not  to  say 
the  inhumanity,  of  the  situation  and  said  to  the 
boy,  "I  will  put  you  where  you  can  be  comfortable." 

The  youth  spent  the  night  in  the  white  coach. 
I  have  often  wondered  since  what  were  his  thoughts, 
as  thus  warm  and  comfortable  he  realized  a  certain 
danger  in  his  position.  Did  he  pull  his  cap  over 
his  ears?  and  his  coat  collar  up  around  his  neck? 
Did  he  keep  his  face  sedulously  away  from  the  aisle? 
Was  he  not  glad  when  the  time  came  to  change  to 
another  line,  and  he  could  take  the  car  which  the 
law  requires?  Suppose  during  the  night  some  half 
drunken  white  men  had  found  him  in  the  white 
coach? 

I  recognize  the  right  of  the  majority  to  impose 
laws  upon  the  minority.  And  I  mean,  in  the  main, 
to  obey  the  law  even  though  I  would  it  were  other 
wise.  But  even  the  majority  should  not  pass  laws 
whose  infraction  from  one  class  of  the  citizenry  they 
care  nothing  about,  while  holding  another  class  se 
verely  to  the  letter. 


THE  EUROPEAN  WAR  A  CONFLICT  OF 
IDEALS 

SOME  student  left  a  novel  on  a  table,  in  some 
way  it  found  its  way  to  my  desk,  and  in  a  rare 
moment  of  leisure  I  opened  it  and  glanced  at  the 
ending.  It  proved  to  be  a  love  story  located  in 
Kentucky  just  at  the  opening  of  the  war  of  1861. 
The  hero  is  casting  his  fortunes  in  with  the  con 
federacy  and  the  heroine  is  following  her  father  into 
hospital  service  for  the  northern  army.  After  the 
war  has  settled  the  question  at  issue  they  will  return 
and  live  happily  together  forever  afterward. 

She  says:  "It's  a  war  between  two  ideals,  what 
ever  else  they  may  say  about  it.  But  it's  really  that, 
between  two  ideals  of  civilization." 

"And  men,"  he  added  quickly,  "always  fight  for 
their  ideals  as  for  nothing  else.  It  will  be  to  the 
last  gasp."  The  present  European  war  is  a  similar 
conflict  of  ideals.  If  this  be  true,  then  the  present 
war  began  when  the  barons  wrested  the  Magna 
Charta  from  King  John.  It  will  continue  until  one 
or  the  other  of  two  ideals  of  government  conquers. 
The  conflict  is  between  democracy  and  autocracy; 
between  the  idea  that  government  is  by  consent  of 

58 


The  European  War  a  Conflict  of  Ideals         59 

the  governed,  and  that  government  rests  upon  the 
divine  right  of  Kings. 

The  general  conflict  among  the  European  powers 
was  inaugurated  at  the  moment  that  the  German  Em 
peror  sent  word  to  the  other  powers  that  "the  war 
between  Austria  and  Servia  must  be  localized  or  the 
gravest  consequences  would  ensue."  This  meant  that 
Germany  would  defend  Austria  in  her  attack  upon 
Servia.  But  back  of  this  pronunciamento  lay  a  sit 
uation  in  Germany  itself.  Perhaps  this  is  best  ex 
pressed  in  a  letter  which  appeared  in  the  Springfield 
Republican  of  August  10,  and  written  by  a  German 
American  in  Hartford. 

"No  German  here,"  he  writes,  "supports  the 
Kaiser's  action.  It  looks  to  me,  a  land  lubber,  as 
though  William  saw  power  slipping  away  from  him, 
democracy  gaining,  scandals  among  his  relatives  in 
creasing,  his  future  uncertain  and  the  only  thing 
for  him  to  do  was  to  have  a  war  which  would  hold 
the  people  together  reuniting  his  empire  for  twenty 
years  or  more.  Then  he  might  be  in  heaven  or 
somewhere  else.  After  the  war,  it  would  require 
some  years  for  the  Socialists  to  become  strong,  and 
the  Godgiven  right  of  German  Kings  might  be  su 
preme  until  that  time." 

To  one  at  all  familiar  with  the  spread  of  liberal 
ideas  in  Germany  within  the  past  twenty  years,  and 
certain  criticism  of  and  limitations  placed  upon  the 
Kaiser,  the  above  characterization  seems  fair,  and 


60  Chums  and  Brothers 

interprets  the  position  of  Germany.  The  conflict 
of  ideals  had  entered  the  Kaiser's  own  domain.  He 
recognized  a  tendency  to  limitation  of  his  power. 
Fortunately  for  Germany  and  for  the  rest  of  the 
world  if  the  revolution  had  gone  as  in  England  dur 
ing  the  century  just  closed.  Today  England  is 
more  nearly  a  pure  democracy  than  is  the  United 
States.  The  government  is  more  quickly  responsive 
to  public  opinion  than  in  our  own  country.  Fortu 
nately  for  England,  leaders  of  the  type  of  Gladstone 
and  rulers  of  the  type  of  Victoria  were  on  the  stage, 
or  the  revolution  from  monarchy  to  democracy 
might  not  have  been  bloodless  as  it  was.  But  Wil 
liam  is  of  a  different  type  from  Victoria  and  his  ad 
visers  are  not  of  the  Gladstone  order.  If  then, 
William  was  to  save  himself  and  his  prerogatives, 
it  was  either  a  war  at  home  or  one  abroad.  And  the 
Austro-Servian  imbroglio  offered  the  opportunity. 

We  in  the  United  States  would  do  well  to  hold  in 
mind  that  this  war  is  a  conflict  of  ideals.  And  to 
remind  ourselves  as  to  the  effect  upon  our  own  in 
stitutions  in  the  event  that  the  German  Militaristic 
philosophy  of  government  wins  out  in  the  present 
contest.  Given,  Germany  in  control  of  the  North 
Sea,  with  England  reduced  to  a  third  rate  power 
and  France  controlled  from  Berlin,  and  our  secur 
ity  because  of  our  isolation  comes  to  an  end. 

With  a  strong  military  power  controlling  western 
Europe,  a  military  power  must  inevitably  and  of 


The  European  War  a  Conflict  of  Ideals         61 

necessity  develop  in  the  United  States.  War-meas 
ure-taxes  will  become  the  rule,  larger  armies  and 
larger  armaments,  more  dreadnoughts,  submarines 
and  aerial  fleets  must  be  provided.  The  sons  of 
white  men  and  the  sons  of  colored  men  will  spend 
two,  three  and  even  four  years  in  military  service, 
and  the  bills  be  paid  by  enhanced  taxes  from  those 
out  of  service ;  the  withdrawal  of  the  young  men 
from  the  ordinary  walks  of  life  will  throw  the  work 
of  the  men  more  and  more  upon  the  women.  In  time, 
the  larger  portion  of  the  farm  work  will  devolve 
upon  women  as  it  does  now  in  Germany.  There 
will  develop  here  a  military  party  anxious  to  test 
itself  with  Europe,  or  even  more  anxious  to  gather 
power  to  itself  at  home.  Republican  institutions 
will  be  in  danger,  and  quietly,  perhaps  as  in  old 
Rome,  absolute  monarchy  will  fasten  itself  upon  the 
United  States,  even  though  the  forms  of  the  present 
institutions  are  preserved. 

However  the  advice  may  be,  to  hold  ourselves  neu 
tral  in  this  European  crisis,  no  man  who  believes  in 
the  "inalienable  rights  of  life,  liberty  and  the  pur 
suit  of  happiness"  can  but  hope  and  pray  that  the 
democratic  spirit  in  Europe  shall  be  successful  over 
the  autocratic  and  must  expect  that  the  war  will  go 
on  until  democracy  conquers. 

It  is  a  sad  commentary  upon  our  Christian  (?) 
civilization  that  all  the  beneficent  instrumentalities 
of  modern  science  should  be  turned  toward  making 


62  Chums  and  Brothers 

war  more  dreadful.  The  old  phrase  was  "Scratch 
a  Russian  and  you  find  a  bear."  Where  in  our  mod 
ern  life  can  you  scratch  anyone  and  not  find  a  bar 
barian?  Surely  the  conflict  abroad  exemplifies  this. 
And  one  deplores  any  further  advance  in  science,  if 
the  victories  won  in  the  laboratory  are  in  the  end 
to  simply  make  war  more  unfeeling  and  deadly. 
February,  1915. 


AN  OUTING  WITH  TANNER 

YOU  have  read  the  letter?  Read  me  the  first 
lines. 

"It  was  certainly  a  pleasure  to  receive  your 
Christmas  card.  And  the  remarkable  thing  about 
it  was,  that  Tanner  turned  up  the  next  day,  and 
spent  Sunday  with  me.  He  came  over  to  sell  a  few 
pictures." 

What  is  there,  Laddie,  between  my  Christmas  card 
and  Tanner's  return  to  America  that  should  call 
forth  any  comment,  or  be  in  any  sense  remarkable? 

Ah!  boy,  how  much  that  letter  calls  up  the  past. 
Few  people  in  this  town  remember  that  Henry  Os- 
sawa  Tanner,  America's  most  distinguished  painter, 
taught  art  in  one  of  its  schools.  And  fewer  still 
ever  knew  that  on  a  cool  morning  in  early  June  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago,  four  of  us,  young  men, 

Tanner,  and  C and  H —  -  and  myself  rode  out 

of  this  town  in  a  hack  drawn  by  three  horses,  en- 
route  for  the  mountains  of  western  North  Carolina. 
School  was  done.  The  year  of  work  had  come  to 
its  end,  and  we  were  beginning  a  picnic  that  was  to 
last  the  best  part  of  four  months.  How  little  we 
recked  of  the  future !  We  left  the  city  on  the  north 

63 


64  Chwms  and  Brothers 

side,  the  world  and  its  care  behind  us ;  the  mountains 
and  their  joys  before. 

Tanner  and  I  were  city-bred.  The  others  were 
of  the  country,  and  we  gladly  left  to  them  the  con 
trol  of  the  team,  while  we  enjoyed  the  rear  seat  and 
care-free  pursued  our  journey. 

That  first  night  in  camp!  To  me  it  was  a  new 
experience  to  lie  with  the  ground  for  a  couch  and 
the  stars  in  the  blue  as  my  coverlid.  Early  in  the 
night  a  cloud  came  and  rain  dropped  upon  our  faces, 
and  it  was  often  reported  afterward  that  I  mur 
mured  as  I  turned  to  shield  my  face  from  the  rain : — 

"What  a  foolish  fellow  you  are  to  thus  court  cer 
tain  death  by  this  exposure." 

But  somehow  the  cloud  passed  and  we  slept,  if 
not  the  sleep  of  the  righteous,  the  sleep  that  tired 
men  only  sleep. 

Sunday  we  spent  at  a  local  hostelry,  and  I  recall 
one  incident  that  has  local  color.  Going  into  the 
stable  to  look  after  the  horses,  we  met  the  small  boy 
who  took  out  from  a  recess  a  suspicious  bottle  and 
invited  us  to  help  ourselves.  And  when  we  declined, 
he  took  a  long  draught  himself,  and  remarked, 

"It's  mighty  good." 

Mountain  roads  lose  a  certain  fearsomeness  by 
acquaintance.  But  as  we  neared  our  destination, 
the  road  did  not  improve.  All  at  once  the  wheels 
on  the  lower  side  sank  and  the  wagon  lurched  as  if 


An  Out  wig  with  Tanner  65 

to  throw  itself  down  the  steep  mountain  side.  I 
was  on  the  lower  side,  and  Tanner  on  the  upper. 
How  it  was  done  I  never  knew.  But  in  some  desper 
ate  movement  due  to  the  instinct  of  self-preservation, 
I  saw  Tanner  sitting  on  a  rock  by  the  roadside  and 
I  was  hanging  out  of  his  seat.  Evidently  I  pushed 
him  out.  But  we  reached  our  haven  safely,  and  as 
we  gathered  in  the  little  hotel  in  the  mountain  town, 
I  noted  the  absence  of  Tanner.  Somehow  in  those 
days  I  was  slow  of  comprehension  and  assumed  that 
he  was  taking  care  of  himself  to  reduce  expenses. 
In  all  those  weeks  the  real  reason  never  dawned 
upon  me. 

The  horses  belonged  to  the  other  men.  I  was  to 
hire  my  horse.  It  was  a  novel  experience,  but  I  soon 
learned  to  mount  and  to  hold  on.  Every  day  had 
its  special  objective  point.  Our  first  ride  led  us 
three  or  four  miles  away  to  an  interesting  water 
fall.  And  while  at  the  falls,  a  heavy  mountain 
shower  came  up  and  drenched  us.  And  again  I 
had  the  vision  of  serious  disaster  to  befall  me.  We 
hurriedly  mounted,  and  rushed  for  the  hotel,  and 
got  dry  in  the  ride  and  never  thought  of  a  change 
of  apparel.  So  my  second  hazard  passed  unnoted. 

And  those  three  fellows,  how  they  taught  me  to 
ride!  Coming  in  from  an  excursion  one  evening,  I 
purposely  kept  in  front  to  show  my  skill  in  the 
mount.  And  I  noted  that  my  horse  was  going  by 
leaps  and  bounds  and  I  gloried  in  my  prowess,  and 


66  Chums  and  Brothers 

did  not  know  until  afterwards  that  my  comrades 
were  maliciously  whipping  my  horse  through  his  best 
paces,  they  having,  as  they  said,  the  fun  of  their 
lives. 

Tanner  was  the  photographer  of  the  party.  This 
was  before  the  era  of  the  Kodak.  Tanner  prepared 
his  own  plates  and  developed  his  own  pictures.  And 
one  of  the  simple  pleasures  of  the  vacation  was  to 
help  Tanner  in  the  dark  room.  Here  I  got  my  first 
lessons  in  photography.  And  Tanner's  pictures 
were  always  artistic.  I  look  them  over  occasionally 
now  and  recognize  the  artist  even  in  the  photog 
rapher. 

C and  H were  married,  and  their  wives 

appeared  soon  after  our  own  arrival.  So  that  nat 
urally  Tanner  and  I  were  a  good  deal  together. 
And  Tanner  at  one  time  desired  to  go  off  on  a 
lengthy  excursion  which  did  not  appeal  to  the  oth 
ers,  nor  for  that  matter  to  me.  But  I  said, 

"Tanner,  if  you  are  bound  to  go  you  shall  not  go 
alone." 

A  twenty  mile  ride  brought  us  to  the  little  stream 
where  we  might  fish  or  might  paint.  That  is,  Tan 
ner  might.  Neither  pursuit  appealed  to  me.  We 
erected  our  little  tent,  ate  the  supper  which  Tanner 
prepared  in  the  skillet  (for  he  was  a  man  of  many 
parts)  and  fed  our  horses,  and  lay  down  for  a  night 
without  dreams.  Ah,  that  air,  and  those  stars  and 
the  green  of  the  trees  and  purling  of  the  brook! 


An  Outing  with  Tarmer  67 

All  at  once  there  was  a  pull  at  my  pillow,  which 
was  of  the  bundles  of  oats  bought  for  the  horses. 
I  was  awake  instantly;  a  second  pull  and  I  was  on 
my  feet,  to  discover  that  the  interlopers  were  the 
mountain  razor-backs  that  had  scented  our  larder 
and  proposed  to  help  us  in  its  enjoyment.  Thrice 
that  night  I  rose  to  defend  our  possessions,  but  as 
I  recall,  Tanner  slept  calmly  on.  I  policed  the 
camp. 

We  spent  the  next  day  in  that  dell  of  exquisite 
loveliness,  glad  that  if  "man  made  the  town"  that 
"God  made  the  country." 

Early  after  a  dinner  prepared  as  only  Tanner 
could  prepare  it,  we  broke  camp,  intent  upon  a 
mountain  climb  where  the  second  night  was  to  be 
spent.  How,  as  some  incident  calls  up  the  past, 
the  little  insignificant  items  recur  to  the  mind.  We 
stopped  at  a  farm  house  to  purchase  chickens  for 
our  refection.  The  good  woman  called  her  fowl 
around  her  with  loving  words  and  corn,  and  they 
came  by  the  dozens,  if  not  by  the  hundreds.  And 
having  allayed  their  fears  and  worked  upon  their 
instincts,  she  treacherously  picked  out  three  of  the 
most  promising  of  the  flock,  shooed  the  others  away, 
who  never  missed  their  mates.  And  these  she  quickly 
prepared  for  us.  We  crossed  her  palm  with  silver, 
and  escaped  with  our  booty. 

Our  climb  to  an  elevation  of  over  6000  feet  was 
not  difficult,  and  we  reached  the  top  in  season  to 


68  Chums  and  Brothers 

erect  our  camp  and  to  gather  a  large  pile  of  wood 
when  we  found  ourselves  in  a  cloud.  Not  a  light 
fleecy  cloud,  but  one  full  of  wetness,  a  wetness  that 
sticks.  So  we  took  our  night  watches,  changing 
perhaps  hourly,  Tanner  keeping  up  the  fire  for  me 
and  I  again  keeping  up  the  fire  for  Tanner.  And 
between  times,  lying  upon  the  soggy  earth  with  our 
shoulders  in  a  puddle.  Nor  cared  we!  The  spirits 
of  the  mountains  might  conspire  to  drown  us  out 
or  drive  us  away,  but  our  courage  was  up  to  any 
test.  So  the  long  night  passed  and  with  it  the 
cloud,  and  the  sun  awoke  us  in  the  morning,  with  the 
world  at  our  feet. 

And  as  we  stood  upon  the  very  apex  of  the  moun 
tain,  that  morning  we  saw  remnants  of  storms  all 
around  us.  And  one  storm  cloud  came  upon  our 
right  so  near  that  we  could  almost  touch  it.  And 
right  there  before  us  it  rained  itself  to  pieces  and 
disappeared,  fairly  worn  out  with  its  efforts. 

Coming  down  the  mountain,  we  lost  the  trail. 
And  the  mountain  was  steep.  And  we  zigzaged  our 
way  down  the  slopes,  thankful  that  the  horses  kept 
their  horse-sense  in  a  situation  that  seemed  to  have 
some  danger.  But  finally  we  struck  a  trail  which 
led  to  a  cabin.  And  here  they  told  us  to  go  the 
way  we  did  not  think  could  be  right,  and  to  follow 
the  plainest  trail  and  we  should  reach  our  destina 
tion.  What  a  thing  a  plain  trail  is !  Fortunately 
it  was  plainer  to  the  horses  than  to  us,  and  in  large 


An  Outing  with  Tanner  69 

part  trusting  ourselves  to  them,  we  filed  through  a 
valley,  climbed  a  mountain,  reached  a  highway  and 
recognized  our  location. 

Sitting  upon  a  mountain  top,  I  saw  Tanner 
stretch  his  first  ambitious  canvas.  It  may  have 
been  two  feet  by  fifteen  inches.  I  saw  the  artist  put 
the  first  brush  of  paint  upon  that  white  surface.  I 
saw  it  grow  from  day  to  day.  I  saw  Tanner  put 
on  the  finishing  touches.  I  have  stood  many  a  time 
since  on  the  spot  where  Tanner  sat.  Happy  moun 
tains  !  to  have  Tanner  depict  you !  Fortunate  moun 
tains,  that  you  look  even  now  just  like  the  picture 
of  you  that  he  painted !  And  I  ...  I  suppose  that 
I  could  have  bought  that  picture  for  the  money  that 
I  gave  Tanner  for  photographs.  And  I  lost  the 
opportunity.  Boy,  what  would  I  not  give  today 
if  I  could  show  to  you  and  to  yours  Tanner's  first 
ambitious  effort,  and  know  that  it  was  mine  or 
yours  ? 

You  know  the  story?  It  ought  to  be  told  to  en 
courage  every  boy  with  a  definite  aptitude.  There 
was  the  boy  with  the  artist's  soul  and  the  love  of  the 
brush.  And  there  was  the  practical  father  who  saw 
no  future  in  art,  but  in  a  clerkship.  And  the  boy, 
disappointed  and  out  of  his  element,  a  Pegasus  yoked 
to  a  plow,  sickened.  And  hope  faded.  And  the 
distraught  father  said:  "Henry,  get  well  and  you 
shall  paint."  And  the  boy  got  well  and  still  paints. 


70  Chums  and  Brothers 

Do  you  not  see,  Laddie,  what  that  letter  recalls 
out  of  the  past?  How  little  I  sensed  it  then  or  for 
years  afterward,  that  I  had  spent  a  summer  with  a 
genius,  that  for  once  in  my  life  I  had  lived  inti 
mately  with  one  of  the  world's  masters.  How  little 
any  one  of  that  group  of  four  young  men  dreamed 
that  one  of  us  would  make  a  name  for  himself  and 
for  his  people.  Out  of  all  the  company  that  came 
and  went  in  that  little  mountain  summer  resort, 
some  of  whom  looked  askance  at  him,  I  do  not  know 
of  any  one  that  the  world  has  heard  of  save  Henry 
Ossawa  Tanner. 


STUDENT  BIOGRAPHIES 

NOTE: — During  the  year  1915,  I  asked  several  graduates  of 
the  school  who  were  then  or  who  had  been  taking  graduate 
work  in  Northern  Universities  to  tell  me  something  of  their 
work  and  of  their  efforts  to  sustain  themselves  while  at  this 
work.  The  replies  were  representative  and  illustrate  that  our 
Negro  youth  can  make  the  same  effort  to  grow  along  their 
chosen  lines  that  their  white  brothers  make. 


YOUR  letter  is  especially  appreciated  as  it  tells 
me  that  you  are  still  interested  in  what  I  am 
doing  and  that  you  still  hold  me  in  regard.     This 

year  I  am   Senior  in  the  Dental   College   of  

University.  The  years  spent  here  have  been  strenu 
ous  ones.  When  in  school  with  you  I  was,  to  a 
large  extent,  financed  by  my  people.  Here  I  have 
had  to  foot  all  my  bills.  I  have  found  it  impossible 
to  earn  enough  during  the  summer  to  defray  all  the 
expenses  of  the  school  term.  But  in  several  ways 
I  have  been  enabled  to  keep  myself  thus  far  from 
absolute  bankruptcy. 

In  my  Freshman  year,  I  worked  a  good  deal  in 
this  city.  In  my  Sophomore  year  I  worked  a  good 
deal  in  the  printing  office  of  this  University.  This 

71 


72  Chums  and  Brothers 

year  I  obtained  a  position  as  night-watchman. 
Here  I  work  only  part  of  the  month.  There  is  noth 
ing  hard  about  the  job,  but  the  hours  are  long  and 
there  is  a  consequent  loss  of  sleep.  I  never  get 
sleep  enough  when  working.  While  I  consider  my 
self  fortunate  in  having  the  necessary  work,  yet  it 
is  burdensome  and  often  interferes  with  school  work. 
Last  summer  I  spent  at  work  in  this  city.  The  pre 
vious  summer  I  worked  in  a  hotel  in  New  York  state. 


You  inquire  as  to  my  school  expenses  and  I,  there 
fore,  give  you  the  following  itemized  statement: 

Tuition $100.00 

Matriculation,  First  Year 5.00 

Athletics  and  Library  Fees 2.00 

Board  and  Lunches 96.00 

Lodging,  Two  in  a  Room 32.00 

Laundry 20.00 

Books,  New 25.00 

Total    $280.00 

Add  to  this  total  the  amount  of  numerous  inci 
dental  expenses  which  inevitably  arise  and  you  will 
not  fall  below  $300.00  for  the  school  term.  Most 
of  the  students  in  my  Alma  Mater  never  realize  what 
they  are  getting  until  they  leave.  The  $15.00 


Student  Biographies  73 

which  is  charged  there  for  total  monthly  expenses 
barely  covers  the  cost  of  my  food  in  this  city  for  a 
month.  But  I  hope  that  my  figures  will  not  dis 
courage  any  of  my  fellow  alumni  who  are  meditat 
ing  a  similar  course. 

in 

Your  second  question  relates  to  my  total  annual 
expense.  In  reply,  I  did  not  keep  track  of  my 
other  expenses.  I  was  so  busy  hustling,  trying  to 
get  board  and  carfare  together,  that  if  I  got  that 
I  was  happy.  I  do  know  that  I  spent  every  cent 
that  I  could  get  hold  of. 

My  laundry  was  only  the  cost  of  my  collars,  the 
other — well,  Saturday  was  my  wash-day.  I  never 
bought  a  suit  of  clothes  from  the  day  I  entered  the 
Medical  School  until  I  graduated.  At  Commence 
ment,  my  gown  (bless  its  memory  1)  covered  the 
worst  places.  The  morning  of  graduation  I  had  to 
mend  a  hole  in  my  coat. 

Books: — I  had  only  two  that  I  could  call  my 
own.  The  others  I  borrowed  from  fellow-students 
or  from  the  library.  I  waited  on  table  for  my  board 
part  of  the  time,  and  at  other  times  I  was  taking 
care  of  furnaces,  shoveling  snow,  and  doing  chores. 
Part  of  my  first  year  I  worked  in  a  beer-garden  for 
tips.  Saturday  and  Sunday  nights  it  was  worth 
three  or  four  dollars  a  night.  I  finally  left  the 
place  because  I  was  getting  notorious. 


74  Chwms  and  Brothers 

The  last  two  and  a  half  years  I  worked  in  the 
Post  Office  at  night.  I  got  on  the  average  about 
three  hours  of  sleep.  Sundays  I  slept  all  day.  You 
see  it  is  impossible  to  tell  what  my  annual  expenses 
were.  They  were  the  sum  of  all  these  items. 

The  principal  thing  is  to  get  the  tuition  for  the 
first  year.  One  who  has  hustle,  grit,  and  determina 
tion  can  make  it.  It  is  not  hard  to  get  a  place  to 
earn  board  and  lodging.  If  a  fellow  knows  how  to 
wait  on  a  table  he  will  not  find  making  his  way  as 
hard  as  might  appear. 


IV 


I  had  a  little  money  that  I  had  saved  and  I  did 
have  friends  upon  whom  I  could  call  in  an  emer 
gency.  And  while  I  never  made  the  call,  the  as 
surance  put  me  in  the  attitude  for  such  an  adven 
ture  as  undertaking  to  work  my  way  through  a  great 
university.  The  first  thing  that  I  did  after  regis 
tering  was  to  make  application  for  work  to  the  Stu 
dent-Service-Bureau.  There  are  lots  of  odd  jobs 
and  some  steady  work  for  which  the  university  gives 
credit  on  term  bills.  In  addition  to  this  I  was  will 
ing  to  put  myself  in  the  attitude  of  wishing  work  be 
fore  all  my  friends  and  before  the  janitors.  Through 
these  I  got  my  most  remunerative  work.  I  hauled 
books  between  the  libraries;  I  operated  the  stere- 
opticon  for  transient  lecturers;  I  got  a  steady  job 


Student  Biographies  75 

which  netted  me  between  $30.00  and  $40.00  per 
quarter.  I  was  messenger  at  the  Medical  School,  in 
which  capacity  I  went  three  times  a  week  to  the 
abattoir  to  fetch  a  twenty-pound  bucket  of  embryo 
pigs.  I  did  this  for  months.  I  printed  bills  of  fare 
and  waited  on  table  at  the  Commons.  I  was  a  reg 
ular  policeman  at  athletic  games.  Finally,  I  secured 
a  positon  in  the  Post  Office  where  I  worked  for 
months. 

Versatility,  quickness  to  see  opportunities  and  to 
select  the  best  of  several,  willingness  to  work — these 
are  the  means.  I  forgot  to  say  that  I  read  French 
and  German  to  a  western  friend  and  he  paid  me 
well. 


NOTE: — The  writer  of  the  above  illustrates  his  own  point 
that  versatility  is  a  prime  qualification  for  this  adventure. 
While  expertness  in  some  line  is  the  prime  requisite  for  the 
mature  man  for  success,  for  the  young  man,  versatility  is  the 
more  important.  If  one  could  know  in  advance  just  what 
demands  would  be  made  upon  him  in  the  struggle  for  a  foot 
hold,  one  might  begin  at  an  early  date  to  work  along  the  lines 
of  his  future  occupation.  It  is  a  mistake  for  our  schools  to 
train  for  expertness  when  the  more  vital  thing  is  versatility. 


NOVEMBER  HTH,  1915 

WHEN    rumor   had   become    established   fact 
and  we  knew  that  Mr.  Washington  was  dead, 
there  came  to  mind  a  verse,  learned  in  early  boyhood, 
which  had  not  recurred  to  me  in  years.     I  quote  from 
memory : 

Good  Lord,  when  one  man  dies  who  wears  a  crown, 

How  the  world  trembles,  how  the  nations  gape; 

But  when  that  one  man's  victims,  poor  worms,  die 
at  his  behest, 

Ye  pitying  souls,  shed  not  one  tear  from  your  in 
different  eyes. 

And  I  found  myself,  by  some  subtle  law  of  sug 
gestion  comparing  Wilhelm  of  Berlin  with  Wash 
ington  of  Tuskegee.  History,  I  surmise,  will  ad 
judge  the  one  as  one  of  the  most  destructive  forces 
of  all  time ;  the  other  as  one  of  the  most  efficient  con 
structive  agencies  of  his  generation.  Resulting 
from  the  action  of  the  one,  fifteen  million  men  in 
sixteen  months  have  been  "put  out  of  the  fight," 
either  killed  or  maimed  or  health  shattered.  Under 
the  beneficent  work  of  the  other,  the  children  of  a 
nation  with  a  population  of  a  hundred  million,  have 

76 


'November  ifth,   1915  77 

been  helped  educationally,  as  ideas  which  this  man 
put  into  active  operation  have  been  shown  to  have 
educational  value,  not  alone  for  "defectives,  Indians, 
and  Negroes,"  but  for  the  children  of  all  classes 
and  conditions. 

As  I  journeyed  on  Tuesday  afternoon  to  repre 
sent  Atlanta  University  in  honoring  the  founder 
of  Tuskegee  Institute,  I  learned  that  a  death  which 
had  come  to  me  as  a  lightning-flash  out  of  a  clear 
sky  was  not  altogether  unexpected  by  those  near 
est  him  and  that  he  had  been  for  some  years  a  broken 
man.  On  the  train,  sitting  with  Dr.  Frissell  of 
Hampton,  I  asked  if  he  had  not  been  the  victim  of 
overwork,  if  he  had  not  been  for  years  an  overtired 
man.  The  reply  was  "Yes,"  and  I  wondered  then 
and  have  wondered  since  if  the  sacrifice  was  neces 
sary.  Carl  Hilty  remarks  in  one  of  his  essays  that 
if  each  of  all  the  people  would  do  his  share  of  the 
work  of  the  world,  none  of  us  would  be  overworked. 
It  is  because  some  do  less  than  their  share  or  even 
do  none  of  it  that  others  are  overborne.  Surely 
Mr.  Washington  never  shirked  his  portion.  Could 
we  not  all  of  us  have  made  life  easier  for  him?  Yet 
how  necessary  he  was  to  our  successes !  Whoever 
arranged  a  public  meeting  or  a  convention  and 
asked  him  to  come  and  make  it  a  success,  that  he 
ever  failed?  Somehow  he  wrought  until  his  human 
machinery  gave  out,  nor  stopped  until  then. 

Reaching  the  school  ground  most  of  us   sought 


78  Chums  and  Brothers 

the  chapel  where  the  body  "lay  in  state."  I  noted 
first  the  four  students  in  military  dress  guarding 
their  Principal.  And  ever  and  anon,  the  relay  came 
in,  went  to  the  other,  gave  the  simple  military  sa 
lute,  and  took  the  place  on  guard.  Thus  all  day 
Monday,  and  Monday  night,  Tuesday  and  Tuesday 
night,  and  Wednesday  morning  until  the  chimes 
struck  the  hour  of  noon  was  the  body  of  Mr.  Wash 
ington  guarded  by  his  students.  Next  I  noted  the 
floral  tribute.  And  again  and  again  and  yet  again, 
I  sought  the  chapel  to  look  upon  this  wonderful  ex 
pression  of  affection  for  Mr.  Washington  and  to 
grasp,  if  I  could,  its  meaning.  I  learned  what  al 
ready  I  might  have  known,  that  not  only  did  men 
admire  him  for  his  ability  and  esteem  him  because 
of  his  success,  but  that  somehow  he  tied  men  to  him 
with  the  cords  of  love.  Sad  it  is  that  we  are  limited 
to  so  few  means  of  expressing  our  affection  at  such 
a  time!  There  were  telegrams  without  number. 
Letters  without  number  and  flowers.  ...  As  we 
waited  for  the  Tuskegee  train  at  Chehaw,  the  train 
from  Montgomery  pulled  in  and  it  seemed  as  though 
the  express  car  was  filled  with  floral  tributes.  And 
these  were  but  a  portion  of  the  lavish  wealth  of  flow 
ers  that  poured  in  upon  the  school.  One  who  has 
knowledge  of  such  matters  estimated  the  value.  The 
figures  were  astounding;  I  will  not  quote  them.  At 
the  best  it  showed  how  poor  is  our  richest  tribute  at 
such  a  time.  There  they  were  upon  the  rostrum, 


November  ijih,   ip/5  79 

arranged  by  some  skilled  hand.  The  multiplicity 
had  become  a  unity,  so  that  the  various  pieces  melted 
into  one  world  tribute.  The  usual  suggestions  of 
mourning  were  absent.  There  was  quiet  conversa 
tion  as  those  from  abroad  met,  shook  hands,  and 
communed  with  one  another.  Our  host  was  there 
as  at  other  times.  We  talked  much  of  him  and 
there  was  a  solemn  joy.  If  a  good  man  had  done  a 
good  work  and  had  passed  away,  the  passing  was 
accomplished  amid  the  scene  of  his  labors,  while  still 
in  the  maturity  of  his  powers  and  with  harness  on. 

I  saw  those  flowers  on  Wednesday  morning  at  a 
time  when  few  others  saw  them.  The  early  sun  was 
streaming  through  the  stained  glass  of  the  windows 
and  fell  upon  the  east  end  of  the  rostrum,  touching 
with  color  the  flowers  and  giving  if  possible  added 
beauty.  And  as  the  sun  mounted,  the  colors 
changed  and  passed  along  the  rostrum  as  though 
a  rainbow  was  passing  over  the  scene.  I  said  to  a 
student  present,  as  later  I  said  to  others, 

"My  boy,  you  will  live  many  years  and  you  may 
know  many  men,  but  you  will  never  again  see  such 
a  tribute  as  this.  There  are  not  a  half  dozen  men 
in  the  country  who  could  call  it  forth.  This  is 
worthy  of  a  monarch.'* 

And  then  I  reasoned  with  myself  that  in  the  case 
of  the  monarch,  one  might  suspect  a  certain  per 
functory  character  to  such  a  tribute  that  was  ab 
sent  here. 


80  Chums  and  Brothers 

The  service  was  extremely  simple  and  carried  out 
the  wishes  of  the  family  and  of  Mr.  Washington 
himself.  At  a  half  hour  after  ten,  the  procession 
of  students,  led  by  the  school  band,  had  started  from 
the  administration  building.  The  students  were 
followed  by  the  family,  these  by  the  guests  from 
abroad,  and  following  these  came  the  officers  and 
teachers  of  the  school.  The  city  of  Tuskegee  sus 
pended  all  business  during  the  hours  of  the  service 
and  I  understood  that  the  mayor  and  the  council 
were  present,  with  a  goodly  representation  of  citi 
zens  from  the  city  itself.  One  Tuskegee  matron,  a 
white  woman,  leaned  forward  and  spoke  to  one  of 
the  colored  women  present  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wash 
ington,  and  again  I  wondered,  asking  myself,  if  in 
his  death,  he,  in  whose  honor  we  had  gathered,  had 
conquered  the  South  in  a  way  that  in  his  life  he 
had  not  done. 

The  service  consisted  of  Scripture  lessons  read 
by  the  chaplain,  a  prayer  of  wonderful  power  and 
beauty  by  Dr.  Frissell,  a  lifelong  friend  and  teacher 
of  Mr.  Washington.  A  part  of  the  fifteenth  chap 
ter  of  Corinthians  I,  one  telegram  from  the  board 
of  trustees,  expressing  the  sympathy  of  the  board 
in  the  loss  the  school  had  sustained  and  stating  the 
determination  of  the  board  to  stand  by  the  school, 
and  one  brief  address  by  one  of  the  trustees,  who 
spoke  warmly  of  Mr.  Washington  and  who  supported 
the  statements  of  the  telegram,  were  also  read. 


November  ifth,   1915  81 

With  these  were  rendered  alternately  certain  old 
time  songs,  some  of  Mr.  Washington's  favorites,  in 
cluding  "My  Brother's  Taken  His  Crown  and  Gone 
Home,"  and  "Swing  Low,  Sweet  Chariot."  The  last 
hymn,  "Still,  Still  with  Thee,  When  Purple  Morn 
ing  Breaketh"  seemed  peculiarly  appropriate,  be 
cause  written  by  Mrs.  Stowe.  Then  the  procession 
reformed  and  we  gathered  about  the  open  grave 
to  the  east  of  the  chapel.  Here  to  the  music  of 
Scripture  selections  and  after  a  brief  prayer,  all 
that  was  mortal  of  Booker  Taliaferro  Washington 
was  laid  to  rest.  The  taps  sounded,  the  students 
on  guard  found  their  work  finished,  and  the  family 
and  friends  slowly  moved  away.  There  came  to 
mind  the  words  of  Tennyson,  written  of  another, 

Ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust, 
He  is  gone  who  seemed  so  great. 

It  was  a  little  startling  on  reaching  home  to  open 
The  Outlook  to  find  a  letter  from  Mr.  Washington, 
evidently  penned  during  his  last  illness,  a  plea  for 
Haiti  and  the  Haitians  that  we  be  patient  in  our 
dealings  with  this  people  even  as  we  have  been  patient 
elsewhere. 

I  close  by  quoting  from  an  editor: — 

The  Negroes'  chief  spokesman  before  their  white 
fellowmen  is  gone.  And  this  is  the  white  man's  loss. 
It  is  a  greater  injury  to  misunderstand  than  to  be 


82  Chums  and  Brothers 

misunderstood,  and  without  this  spokesman,  the 
white  people  will  be  more  in  danger  of  misunder 
standing  their  black  fellow-countrymen. 

While  the  writer  feels  that  there  are  other  voices 
that  ought  to  be  listened  to,  it  remains  true  that 
for  twenty-five  years  Mr.  Washington  has  been 
heard  as  no  other  speaker  for  the  colored  race  and 
"it  is  not  likely  that  there  will  soon  arise  a  Negro 
whom  the  white  people  of  the  South  and  the  North 
will  so  readily  heed." 


A  NEW  YEAR'S   MESSAGE— 1916 

A  SENSE  of  humor  frequently  saves  a  tense 
situation.  It  is  said  of  President  Lincoln 
that  at  one  time  he  called  his  cabinet  together  to 
discuss  a  course  of  action  upon  which  he  had  already 
made  up  his  own  mind,  somewhat  to  his  surprise 
every  member  of  his  executive  family  negatived  the 
proposed  action.  The  President  sat  for  some  mo 
ments  in  deep  thought,  disappointed  perhaps  at  the 
unfriendly  attitude  of  his  advisers.  Then  he  looked 
at  them,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye  and  a  smile  about 
his  lips.  "Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "the  ayes  have  it." 
The  President  thus  assumed  responsibility  for  a  line 
of  action  against  the  advice  of  his  cabinet,  but  the 
tenseness  of  the  situation  was  relieved  by  the  hu 
morous  statement  in  which  he  announced  his  de 
cision. 

I  have  often  felt  that  the  Man  of  Galilee  must 
have  been  similarly  endowed  with  a  sense  of  humor 
as  he  met  the  various  crises  of  his  life.  Instead  of 
looking  upon  the  Pharisees  with  bitterness,  the  hu 
morous  side  must  have  appealed  to  him  as  he  ex 
claimed  : — 

83 


84  Chums  and  Brothers 

Ye  are  like  children  in  the  market-place.  We 
have  piped  unto  you  and  ye  will  not  dance ;  we  have 
mourned  unto  you  and  ye  will  not  lament. 

To  paraphrase  the  Master,  "Ye  are  sullen  chil 
dren,  who  will  not  play  anything.  Ye  will  not  play 
wedding,  and  ye  will  not  play  funeral." 

Recall  the  incident  when  Peter  said  to  his  Mas 
ter: 

Behold,  we  have  left  all  and  followed  thee.  What 
shall  we  have  therefore? 

And  Jesus  must  have  smiled  inwardly,  though  all 
signs  of  an  appreciation  of  the  humorous  side  were 
carefully  suppressed,  and  something  like  the  fol 
lowing  may  have  passed  through  his  mind: — 

Boys,  what  have  you  given  up?  Some  leaky  boats 
with  rotting  sails  on  the  Sea  of  Galilee ;  a  little  house, 
Peter,  on  a  side  street  in  Capernaum;  and  possibly 
for  you,  John,  a  small  house  in  Jerusalem.  And 
what  shall  you  receive?  Boys,  your  names  are  writ 
ten  already  upon  the  foundation  stones  of  the  New 
Jerusalem.  Do  ye  grasp  that?  If  it  is  too  poetic 
a  statement,  know  then,  that  you  are  the  founders 
of  a  new  civilization ;  you  will  be  the  marked  men  of 
all  time!  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  ye  that  have 
followed  me  ...  when  the  Son  of  Man  shall  sit 
upon  the  throne  of  His  glory,  ye  shall  sit  upon 
thrones  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  And 
everyone  that  has  forsaken  houses,  or  brethren,  or 
sisters,  or  fathers,  or  mothers,  or  wife,  or  children, 
or  lands,  for  my  name's  sake,  shall  receive  in  this 


A  New  Year's  Message— 1916  85 

world  an  hundred  fold  and  in  the  world  to   come 
life  everlasting. 

And  this  leads  to  the  thought  of  the  moment, 
namely  that  there  are  two  words  in  the  English  lan 
guage  that  I  do  not  like  in  the  usual  uses  made  of 
them.  And  these  words  are  "Sacrifice"  and  "Com 
pensation."  I  recently  noticed  in  some  comments 
upon  the  life  of  Mr.  Washington,  that  the  writer 
spoke  of  the  sacrifices  that  he  had  made  for  his  peo 
ple.  He  might  have  said  with  Peter,  "We  have 
left  all;  what  shall  we  receive?"  I  cannot  imagine 
this.  What  did  Booker  T.  Washington  sacrifice? 
Born,  no  one  knows  when;  at  his  death  every  tele 
graph  line  in  this  and  in  foreign  countries  carried 
the  news.  Sacrifice!  NO!  Opportunity!  To  him 
came  an  opportunity  which  expressed  itself  in  the 
Atlanta  speech  which  lifted  him  at  once  into  the 
forefront  of  publicity,  and  made  the  history  that  we 
all  know  possible. 

We  sometimes  speak  of  the  sacrifice  of  Lincoln. 
Ask,  what  did  he  sacrifice?  A  little  law  office  in 
Springfield,  Illinois ;  a  small  and  not  very  lucrative 
law  practice;  a  reputation  as  a  story-teller,  and  a 
lawyer  who  studied  both  sides  of  a  case  until  he 
knew  his  opponent's  side  even  better  than  his  own. 
What  was  the  outcome?  He  became  the  one  man 
of  his  century!  The  South  sacrificed  Lincoln,  but 
Lincoln  achieved  a  CAREER.  Even  in  the  supreme 


86  Chums  and  Brothers 

event  of  all  history,  the  Crucifixion,  I  can  see  that 
the  Jews  sacrificed  their  Leader,  and  in  that  sacri 
fice  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people  ever  since  has 
been  written.  But  the  Master  became  the  most  sig 
nificant  figure  in  the  history  of  two  thousand  years 
and  the  most  effective  force  in  the  world  of  today. 
This  raises  the  question,  What  is  sacrifice?  And 
here  I  suspect  that  I  am  against  the  ordinary  usage 
as  the  illustrations  above  bear  witness.  Let  us  make 
the  test !  When  a  man  accepts  a  lower  for  a  higher 
opportunity,  he  makes  a  sacrifice.  The  reverse  is 
neither  sacrifice  nor  compensation.  It  becomes  op 
portunity.  When  Daniel  Webster  graduated  from 
Dartmouth  College,  he  was  offered  the  clerkship  of 
Rockingham  County,  New  Hampshire,  at  a  salary  of 
$1200.  He  planned  to  accept  the  position,  for 
$1200  a  year  seemed  large  to  a  boy  out  of  college, 
and  with  college  debts  to  pay.  He  chanced  to  drop 
into  the  office  of  a  prominent  Boston  lawyer  and 
stated  the  situation  to  him.  And  the  lawyer-friend 
made  this  proposition: — "Webster,  if  you  go  into 
that  clerkship,  you  will  remain  clerk  of  Rocking 
ham  County  as  long  as  you  live.  Come  here  into 
my  office.  Study  law  here,  without  pay,  and  make 
a  career  for  yourself."  Webster  followed  the  ad 
vice,  gave  up  a  salary,  studied  law,  and  made  a  Ca 
reer.  This  is  the  center  and  core  of  the  matter. 
Not  a  sacrifice,  for  which  in  some  way  a  compensa 
tion  comes,  but  a  career! 


A  New  Year's  Message — 1916  87 

It  is  here  that  our  personal  conflicts  arise;  our 
temptations  meet  us  here.  These  are  not  choices 
between  what  is  absolutely  right  and  what  is  abso 
lutely  wrong.  Perhaps  no  sharp  line  can  be  drawn. 
The  question  is  as  between  the  high  and  the  low, 
the  good  and  the  better,  the  better  and  the  best. 
And  here  is  where  the  judgment  comes  in.  For  some 
how,  whether  we  wish  it  or  not,  we  feel  the  inner 
compulsion  to  follow  judgment,  although  against 
self-interest  apparently.  The  thing  we  wish  to  do 
fights  the  thing  we  know  we  ought  to  do.  And  if 
we  choose  the  thing  we  wish  against  the  thing  we 
know  we  ought,  there  is  real  sacrifice  and  no  real 
compensation.  I  am  watching  with  much  interest 
three  young  women  that  I  know  who  seem  to  illus 
trate  this.  I  am  sure  that  they  are  not  at  all 
unique,  but  I  happen  to  know  of  them.  All  three 
have  become  foster-mothers  of  children,  two  of  them 
of  their  own  younger  brothers  and  sisters,  and  the 
third  of  a  sister's  children.  They  are  making 
homes  for  the  orphaned  members  of  the  family. 
From  one  point  of  view,  how  much  these  women  have 
given  up!  From  another  point  of  view  how  much 
fuller  and  richer,  how  much  more  point  to  live  in 
this  acceptance  of  a  plain  duty.  They  are  not  be 
moaning  a  sacrifice,  nor  are  they  asking  for  com 
pensation.  They  are  feeling  the  glory  that  comes 
out  of  a  worthy  career. 

One  of  the  sad  phases  of  life  lies  in  the  fact,  that 


88  Chums  and  Brothers 

we  can  only  know  the  thing  that  we  get;  we  never 
know  the  thing  we  might  have  had.  Here  we  stand 
in  our  youth  before  two  closed  doors,  one  of  which 
we  may  open.  When  we  choose  the  one,  we  forever 
close  all  the  possibilities  which  lie  within  the  other. 
It  is  this  problem  of  choice  which  betrays  our  dual 
nature.  On  the  one  hand  we  are  tied  to  the  brute 
creation;  on  the  other  hand  we  are  joined  with  the 
angels.  We  stand  with  our  feet  upon  the  earth,  but 
our  heads  are  among  the  stars.  We  are  human  and 
divine.  In  Biblical  phrase  we  are  flesh  and  spirit 
and  "the  flesh  warreth  against  the  spirit. "  And  be 
tween  these  two,  the  transient  and  the  permanent, 
the  low  and  the  high,  the  good  and  the  better,  the 
things  of  the  flesh  and  those  of  the  spirit,  there  is 
eternal  conflict.  And  there  will  be  eternal  conflict 
until  the  spirit  becomes  master,  and  the  flesh  becomes 
subservient  to  the  purposes  of  the  spirit. 

And  here,  at  the  opening  of  a  new  year,  it  is  well 
for  us  to  have  our  attention  called  to  this  conflict 
of  the  centuries  which  presents  itself  to  each  new 
born  child  and  to  recognize  that  our  temptations 
are  not  toward  the  wrong  as  against  the  right,  but 
toward  the  low  as  against  the  high,  the  good  against 
the  better,  the  flesh  as  against  the  spirit;  and  at 
this  time  to  highly  resolve  to  train  our  judgments 
to  know  what  is  high  and  best  and  of  the  spirit  and 
to  earnestly  pray  that  we  may  be  resolved  to  choose 


A  New  Year's  Message — 1916  89 

these  things  as  against  the  low,  the  merely  good, 
and  the  things  of  the  flesh. 

Most  holy  God,  we  pray  that  Thou  wilt  teach  us 
to  discern  the  excellent.  May  we  not  be  contented 
with  the  good  but  ever  be  searching  for  the  better 
and  the  best.  Give  us  a  great  appetite  for  the  high 
est  and  may  our  hunger  be  our  defence. 


A  LAY  SERMON 

THE  little  book  of  morning  prayers  had  this 
petition  recently: 

"Dear  Lord,  keep  me  from  the  loneliness  of  self 
ishness."  The  phrase  has  remained  in  my  mind  a 
month.  "The  loneliness  of  selfishness."  I  take  it 
that  it  does  not  mean,  "Lord,  let  me  be  selfish,  but 
save  me  from  the  consequent  loneliness."  It  is 
rather  a  negative  beatitude,  as  though  it  read: 
"Cursed  is  the  man  who  is  selfish ;  he  shall  be  lonely." 

Infraction  of  the  physical  laws  we  expect  will 
meet  with  their  immediate  punishment ;  and  we  build 
in  accordance  with  these  laws  in  the  confident  ex 
pectation  that  if  we  do  not,  our  building  will  tum 
ble.  But  some  how  we  expect  to  escape  the  infrac 
tion  of  the  moral  law,  or  at  least,  we  expect  the 
punishment  will  be  deferred  to  some  indefinite  time 
in  the  future,  forgetting  that  the  punishments  for 
infractions  of  the  moral  law  are  just  as  sure  and 
just  as  prompt  as  those  of  the  physical  law.  The 
text  says  that  this  is  so.  There  is  "selfishness,"  the 
breach  of  the  law  of  "brotherly  kindness" ;  and  there 
is  the  "loneliness,"  the  lack  of  friends,  the  sure  and 
prompt  result. 

90 


A  Lay  Sermon  91 

Perhaps  none  of  us  would  be  willing  to  tell  that 
he  was  selfish,  and  therefore  lonely;  or  that  he  was 
lonely  because  he  had  been  selfish.  But  literature,  if 
it  is  true  to  life,  and  no  other  writing  is  literature, 
is  filled  with  illustrations  of  this  law  and  its  pen 
alty.  Winston  Churchill  in  "The  Inside  of  the 
Cup"  creates  the  character  of  Eldon  Parr,  the  multi 
millionaire.  Eldon  Parr  has  made  his  millions  per 
fectly  legally,  and  perfectly  immorally.  An  astute 
lawyer  has  been  well  paid  to  make  it  possible.  And 
Eldon  Parr  has  built  him  a  palace  of  forty-five 
rooms,  each  exquisitely  furnished  with  all  that  art 
and  money  could  accomplish.  But  as  you  wander 
with  him  through  his  sumptuous  dwelling,  you  real 
ize  that  his  selfishness  has  crushed  out  the  life  of 
his  wife  and  she  has  passed  away;  you  know  that 
he  has  driven  his  only  son  out  of  his  home  because 
the  young  man  would  not  follow  his  father's  plan 
ning;  and  his  one  daughter  leaves  her  father's  house 
that  she  may  make  a  career  independent  of  her 
father,  and  in  a  sense  in  reproof  of  him.  And  El 
don  Parr  dwells  alone ;  there  are  servants,  it  is  true, 
but  no  family  and  no  friends.  And  when  Eldon 
Parr  dies,  which  room  will  miss  him?  Which  chair 
long  for  him?  Which  work  of  art  will  weep  for 
him?  He  owns  the  world,  but  he  has  no  friends. 
He  has  the  power  that  money  gives,  but  whether 
he  knows  it  or  not,  he  is  lonely. 

Similarly,  Thomas  Nelson  Page,  in  "Red  Rock, 


92  Chums  and  Brothers 

A  Story  of  Reconstruction,"  paints  two  characters 
who  are  under  the  punishment  of  selfishness. 
Whether  or  not  the  book  is  a  good  picture  of  the 
times  it  purports  to  depict  is  not  the  question  that 
interests  here.  But  in  the  case  of  the  two  charac 
ters,  the  "scalawag"  and  the  "carpet-bagger,"  he  is 
true  to  life.  Now  one  can  imagine  a  southern  man 
to  so  differ  from  his  neighbor  in  all  those  questions 
that  brought  on  the  Civil  War,  that  he  took  the 
northern  viewpoint  of  the  matter  of  principle;  but 
not  to  Hiram  Still.  Still  deserves  the  name,  "Scala 
wag,"  for  he  had  served  the  North  merely  that  he 
might  despoil  his  neighbors  of  the  South  who  should 
have  been  his  friends.  So  sure  is  he  of  his  righteous 
unpopularity  that  he  remarks  to  one  of  the  civilian 
Northerners : 

"To  be  honest  with  you,  Major,  I  feel  as  if  hav 
ing  you  right  here  by  me  was  a  sort  of  protection. 
They  daresn't  touch  a  gentleman  who's  been  in  the 
Union  army,  and  who's  got  big  friends.  And  that 
is  the  reason  I'd  like  to  have  you  right  close  to 
me."  So,  then,  to  celebrate  his  successes,  he  gave 
a  large  reception,  he  was  obliged  to  confess  to  one 
of  his  guests,  "Pve  got  a  lot  of  folks  from  the  city 
that  I  don't  know,  and  some  from  the  country  I 
know  too  well ;  but  not  one  of  my  neighbors  has  come 
— not  one  gentleman  has  put  his  foot  here  to-night." 
I  suspect  that  Page  created  Jonadab  Leech,  the 
"carpet-bagger"  to  match  Hiram  Still,  the  "scala- 


A  Lay  Sermon  93 

wag."  And  I  would  not  accuse  the  one  as  more 
typical  than  the  other.  But  the  author  is  true  to 
his  conception  of  Leech,  and  having  made  him  ex 
tremely  successful  in  acquiring  property  by  means 
of  his  governmental  position,  and  also,  having  made 
him  a  power  politically,  so  that  Leech  sees  ahead  of 
him  the  governorship  of  the  great  state ;  perhaps 
the  senatorship ;  and  there  may  be  the  White  House 
in  the  distance,  all  at  once  his  house  of  cards  tum 
bles,  and  Leech  finds  himself  at  last,  without  for 
tune  or  power,  and  so  without  friends,  and  left  to 
the  tender  ministrations  of  the  wife  whom  he  had 
spurned  in  his  hour  of  success.  And  so  again  our 
author  is  true  to  life,  and  he  says  with  emphasis, 
that  no  man  can  spend  his  years  making  the  world 
pay  tribute  to  his  selfishness,  and  at  the  end  not 
come  out  shorn  of  his  friends. 

"Human  beings,"  says  Washington  Gladden,  "are 
made  to  live  upon  this  planet  and  to  find  in  mutual 
co-operation  a  large  part  of  the  good  of  being.  The 
law  of  life  is  therefore,  love  or  good  will.  There 
are  sharers  in  one  another's  welfare ;  each  one  is 
largely  dependent  for  his  happiness  on  the  well- 
being  and  well-doing  of  others.  This  is  the  organic 
law  of  human  society.  .  .  ."  "This  is  known  as 
Christ's  law.  Jesus  declared  it  and  incarnated  it; 
but  it  has  been  the  law  of  human  conduct  ever  since 
humanity  existed  upon  the  earth,  and  it  always  will 
be,  in  every  world  inhabited  by  men.  But  this  law 


94  Chums  and  Brothers 

is  constantly  violated  by  those  who  insist  on  dis 
criminating  their  own  interest  from  and  exalting  it 
above  that  of  the  community,  or  preferring  their  in 
dividual  good  to  the  common  good,  and  on  using 
their  fellowship,  as  far  as  they  can,  as  means  to 
their  own  ends." 

Our  human  interest  lies  with  persons  and  with 
things.  The  important  idea  is  the  emphasis.  He 
who  makes  persons  first  will  be  apt  to  live  in  accord 
with  the  law  of  good  will,  the  law  of  love.  He  who 
makes  things  first  will  be  very  likely  to  break  the 
law  of  love,  with  its  consequence  penalties.  For 
"every  man  who  seeks  his  own  interest  at  the  ex 
pense  of  his  neighbors,  naturally  becomes  their  en 
emy,  and  makes  them  his  enemy." 

I  sometimes  think  that  the  first  of  these  is  truer 
than  the  second.  Whom  do  you  hate?  The  man 
who  has  injured  you?  I  am  not  so  sure.  His 
meanness  to  you  has  revealed  to  you  his  real  char 
acter,  and  something  of  pity  fills  your  heart  to  him ; 
a  pity  akin  to  love;  you  hoped  better  of  him  and 
he  disappointed  you.  But  the  man  you  have  in 
jured,  him  you  hate;  for  you  have  revealed  your 
self  to  him,  and  he  knows  you  at  the  very  point  you 
do  not  wish  to  be  known. 

Perthaps  none  of  us  would  be  willing  to  con 
fess  to  "selfishness"  as  his  principle  of  action;  and 
yet  perhaps  some  of  us  ought  to  ask  ourselves,  why 
it  is  that  there  is  so  much  ill-will  between  us  and  the 


A  Lay  Sermon  95 

world.  Self -study  may  show  that  we  have  put  the 
emphasis  upon  things,  and  not  upon  persons,  and 
that  we  have  wished  goods  and  power  rather  than 
friendliness  and  friends.  And  here  lies  a  subtle 
temptation,  to  use  persons  as  things,  irrespective  of 
the  law  of  good  will.  Right  here  lies  the  source  of 
family  ill-will ;  of  ill-will  in  society ;  in  the  nation ;  in 
international  relations. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  self-revelations  of  the 
world,  may  we  not  all  at  times  pray  the  simple 
prayer : 

"Dear  Lord,  deliver  me  from  the  loneliness  of  self 
ishness." 


IN  THE  DAY  COACH 

I  WAS  glad,  after  eighteen  hours  of  aristocratic 
isolation  in  the  Pullman  car,  to  drop  into  the 
democracy  of  the  day  coach  for  the  last  hours  of 
the  journey.  Here  the  gregarious  instinct  asserted 
itself  and  I  enjoyed  to  the  full  the  company  of  three 
young  men  who,  one  after  the  other,  dropped  into  the 
seat  beside  me,  as  we  sped  across  the  state.  Each 
of  the  three  might  form  a  point  of  departure  for 
a  newspaper  article,  but  I  write  only  of  the  third. 

He  came  into  the  car  from  the  College  town 
through  which  we  passed  and  I  found  that  he  was 
a  College  student  going  home  for  a  week-end.  Our 
conversation  began  upon  the  cloud  into  which  we 
were  entering,  touched  upon  the  Chicago  Conven 
tion,  and  then  turned  into  topics  nearer  the  stu 
dent  life.  He  was  a  student  of  four  languages, 
among  these  his  mother  tongue,  the  English.  He 
had  been  taking  a  course  in  Shakespeare  and  he  con 
fessed,  with  some  modesty,  that  the  commentators 
had  written  more  into  the  works  of  the  great  poet 
than  the  poet  had  ever  thought  of  putting  into  his 
own  plays. 

This  comment  showed  me  that  my  seatmate  was 
96 


In  the  Day  Coach  97 

reading  Shakespeare  as  well  as  reading  about  Shake 
speare  and  it  opened  the  way  to  a  discussion  of  other 
authors  and  other  books.  I  confess  to  being  mo 
mentarily  thrown  out  of  control  of  the  conversation 
when  my  seatmate  asked  me  if  I  had  read  any  of 
Dixon's  works. 

"There  are  two  books  by  Dixon  that  ought  to 
live.  They  are  'The  Clansman*  and  'The  Leopard's 
Spots.'  My  sympathies  are  with  the  North  up  to 
and  through  the  War.  But  these  books  give  such 
a  clear  picture  of  the  Reconstruction,  that  after  the 
war  my  sympathy  turns  toward  the  South." 

Perhaps  my  face  betrayed  me.  I  do  not  know. 
But  the  young  man  went  on. 

"Perhaps  I  am  wrong,  but  I  never  had  any  care 
for  or  any  liking  for  the  Negro. 

Here  I  managed  to  interpolate,  "The  man  I  do 
not  like  is  the  man  I  do  not  know." 

And  I  added,  "I  am  sure  that  if  you  could  chum 
with  a  colored  student,  you  might  find  him  very  com 
panionable  and  very  lovable.  You  know,  of  course, 
that  in  the  Eastern  colleges  the  colored  athlete  has 
frequently  been  very  popular." 

This  remark  evidently  touched  a  familiar  line  of 
thought. 

"Yes,"  my  acquaintance  replied,  "the  first  gentle 
manly  Negro  that  I  ever  met  was  a  student.  We 
have  near  us  a  colored  college  and  they  have  beaten 
all  of  our  teams  this  season  at  baseball.  They  play 


98  Chums  and  Brothers 

a  good  game  and  they  are  gentlemen.  They  are 
much  more  gentlemanly  than  the  usual  white  teams 
with  which  we  play." 

This  was  a  pleasing  admission,  but  the  speaker 
at  once  began  to  hedge  as  though  he  had  admitted 
too  much. 

"After  all,"  and  this  was  the  qualifying  statement, 
"you  cannot  expect  a  people  only  two  centuries  from 
savagery  to  acquire  the  civilization  we  have  been 
ten  thousand  years  in  acquiring." 

I  now  took  the  reins  in  my  own  hands. 

"Reconstruction  was  bad  enough  doubtless,  but  it 
was  not  as  bad  as  it  is  painted.  It  was  bad  in  spots, 
but  not  bad  everywhere  nor  bad  anywhere  all  the 
time.  I  am  myself  interested  not  so  much  in  the 
history  of  reconstruction,  as  in  the  admissions  of 
Southern  writers  upon  that  history.  In  the  other 
matter,  if  the  word  'Loyalty'  was  ever  exemplified  to 
the  value  of  one  hundred  per  cent,  it  was  in  the  loy 
alty  of  the  Negro  to  the  Southern  white  man  before, 
during,  and  since  the  Civil  War.  I  am  glad  that 
you  recognize  the  gentleman  in  the  Negro  student. 
I  wish  you  to  recognize  that  if  he  has  not  accom 
plished  all  that  he  might  have  accomplished  in  two 
centuries,  this  may  be  because  he  has  not  had  either 
in  the  North  nor  in  the  South  a  fair  chance.  You 
are  a  student,  but  you  have  read  only  one  side.  You 
must  read  these  books  to  get  the  other  side." 

And  I  gave  the  young  man  the  following  list: — 


In  the  Day  Coach  99 

DuBois'  "Soul  of  Black  Folk,"  his  "Quest  of  the 
Silver  Fleece,"  and  his  "The  Negro,"  and  I  added, 
Thomas  Nelson  Page's  "Red  Rock,"  with  the  com 
ment  that  it  is  a  novel  of  Reconstruction  in  which 
the  author  has  tried  to  please  both  his  Northern 
and  his  Southern  readers  with  fair  success.  Lastly 
I  added  Walter  Page's  "The  Southerner"  in  which 
a  Southern  writer  laughs  at  the  South. 

The  train  stopped  and  I  have  not  met  my  College 
friend  again. 


THE  NEGRO— A  REVIEW 

WHEN  William  E.  Burghardt  DuBois,  col 
ored  graduate  student  of  Harvard  Univer 
sity,  in  the  Department  of  Sociology,  chose  as  his 
graduating  thesis,  "The  Suppression  of  the  African 
Slave  Trade,"  he  thought  that  he  had  a  problem 
that  would  require  about  six  weeks  of  hard  work. 
But  as  the  problem  opened  before  him,  the  six  weeks 
lengthened  into  three  years.  The  study  took  him 
on  a  travelling  fellowship  into  France  and  Germany 
for  two  years.  When  the  study  was  completed,  the 
thesis  written,  accepted,  and  published  as  one  of 
the  Harvard  Historical  Monographs,  and  the  author 
had  received  his  "Doctorate,"  the  book,  "The  Sup 
pression  of  the  African  Slave  Trade"  was,  is,  and 
will  remain,  a  masterpiece  of  historical  writing,  and 
a  statement  of  a  portion  of  history  which  perhaps 
will  never  need  to  be  rewritten.  It  is  a  monument 
of  historical  research. 

The  same  is  not  true  of  the  new  volume  by  the 
same  author,  entitled  "The  Negro,"  issued  by  Henry 
Holt  and  Co.  (1915).  Nor  does  the  little  book 
make  any  pretence  of  being  exhaustive.  In  his 
preface  the  author  says: — 

100 


The  Negro — A   Review  101 

The  time  has  not  come  to  complete  a  history  of 
the  Negro  people.  Archaeological  research  in  Af 
rica  has  just  begun,  and  many  sources  of  informa 
tion  in  Arabian,  Portuguese,  and  other  tongues  are 
not  fully  commanded.  And  too,  it  must  be  frankly 
confessed,  racial  prejudice  against  the  darker  peo 
ple  is  still  too  strong  in  so-called  civilized  centers  for 
judicial  appraisement  of  the  darker  peoples  of  Af 
rica.  Much  intensive  monographic  work  in  history 
and  science  is  needed  to  clear  mooted  points  and  to 
quiet  the  controversialist  who  mistakes  present  per 
sonal  desire  for  scientific  proof. 

Yet  within  the  limitation  which  Dr.  DuBois  rec 
ognizes  and  states  and  while  not  writing  a  history 
of  the  Negro  people,  for  which  neither  the  material 
nor  the  time  are  ready,  the  author  shows  that  there 
is  a  history  and  that  it  is  a  creditable  one.  The 
Negro  has  an  historic  background.  The  Negro  him 
self  has  doubted  this ;  even  his  friends  have  doubted ; 
while  those  distinctly  unfriendly  have  been  sure  that 
the  background  does  not  exist. 

The  trouble  with  Africa  is  both  physiographic 
and  climatic.  It  is  a  great  plateau  lying  across  the 
Torrid  Zone,  with  only  four  great  rivers  reaching 
the  ocean  and  only  one  of  these  navigable  from  the 
mouth.  These  conditions  have  made  it  easily  pos 
sible  for  the  great  human  drama  played  here  to  hide 
itself  from  the  ears  of  other  worlds ;  and  placed 
practically  every  budding  center  of  culture  at  the 
mercy  of  barbarism,  sweeping  a  thousand  miles  with 


102  Chums  and  Brothers 

no  Alps,  or  Himalayas,  or  Appalachians  to  hinder." 
It  is  a  curious  fact  that  of  all  the  peoples  of  an 
tiquity  that  appear  upon  the  pages  of  history,  the 
only  ones  that  have  persisted  through  the  "wrack  of 
time"  are  the  Jews  and  the  Negroes.  And  if  the 
first  one  can  solace  themselves  with  the  history  of 
David  and  Solomon  and  the  Jewish  contribution  of 
the  mono-theistic  idea  to  the  civilization  of  the  world, 
the  others  may  comfort  themselves  with  the  thought 
that  there  was  a  Kingdom  of  Ethiopia  which  modi 
fied  and  for  a  century  controlled  Egypt,  and  left 
evidences  of  its  control  in  the  monuments  that  line 
the  Nile  Valley.  Nor  need  the  Negro  fail  to  recog 
nize  that  Africa  made  its  contribution  to  civiliza 
tion,  for  our  author  quotes  Dr.  Boaz: 

It  seems  likely  that  at  the  time  when  the  Euro 
pean  was  satisfied  with  stone  tools,  the  African  had 
invented  and  adopted  the  smelting  of  iron.  ...  A 
great  progress  was  made  when  copper  was  found 
in  nuggets  large  enough  to  be  hammered  into  tools 
and  later  on  was  shaped  by  smelting.  But  the  true 
advancement  of  industrial  life  did  not  begin  until 
the  hard  iron  was  discovered.  And  it  seems  not 
unlikely  that  the  people  who  made  the  marvellous 
discovery  of  reducing  iron  ores  were  the  African 
Negroes. 

One  sentence  in  the  book  will  stagger  most  read 
ers  (p.  144):  "Remembering  that  in  the  fifteenth 
century  there  was  no  great  disparity  between  the 


The  Negro — A  Review  103 

civilization  of  Negroland  and  that  of  Europe,  what 
made  the  striking  difference  in  subsequent  develop 
ment?"  This  question  will  cause  some  people  to 
smile ;  it  will  make  others  question  themselves  as  to 
what  they  know  of  the  civilization  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  either  in  Europe  or  in  Africa.  The  au 
thor  answers  the  question  as  follows: — 

European  civilization,  cut  off  by  physical  barriers 
from  further  incursions  from  barbaric  races,  settled 
down  more  and  more  to  systematic  industry  and  to 
the  domination  of  one  religion;  African  culture  and 
industries  were  threatened  by  powerful  barbarians 
from  the  west  and  central  region  of  the  continent 
and  by  the  Moors  in  the  North ;  and  Islam  had  only 
partly  converted  the  leading  peoples.  .  .  .  When, 
therefore,  a  demand  for  workmen  arose  in  America^ 
European  exportation  was  limited  by  religious  ties 
and  economic  stability.  African  exportation  was 
encouraged  not  simply  by  the  Christian  attitude 
toward  heathen,  but  also  by  the  Moslem  enmity 
toward  unconverted  Negroes.  Two  great  modern 
civilizations  agreed  at  least  in  the  policy  of  enslav 
ing  the  heathen  blacks,  while  the  overthrow  of  the 
Ankias  (a  powerful  and  highly  developed  Negro  na 
tion)  by  the  Moors,  .  .  .  brought  about  the  eco 
nomic  chaos  among  the  advanced  Negro  peoples,  and 
the  movement  among  the  more  barbarous  tribes 
which  proved  of  prime  importance  in  the  develop 
ment  of  a  systematic  trade  in  men. 

The  chapter  on  "The  Trade  in  Men"  is  sad  read- 


104  Chums  and  Brothers 

ing.  How  many  promising  civilizations  have  been 
wiped  out  by  the  hands  of  barbarism!  There  comes 
to  mind  the  story  of  the  Illinois  Indians,  settled 
upon  a  beautiful  island  in  the  Illinois  River.  Here 
they  had  developed  many  of  the  arts  of  the  agri 
cultural  stage.  In  the  last  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  a  band  of  Iroquois  suddenly  appeared,  and 
in  the  seige  of  "Starved  Rock,"  with  the  exception 
of  one  Indian  brave  who  leaped  from  the  rock  and 
swam  to  safety,  the  entire  company  of  twelve  hun 
dred  men,  women  and  children,  were  put  to  the 
knife.  Thus  one  of  the  most  hopeful  of  Indian  be 
ginnings  was  utterly  destroyed.  But  in  Africa,  it 
was  not  a  few  hundreds.  It  was  millions.  It  was 
not  a  hostile  tribe.  It  was  Christianity  united  with 
Islam. 

It  was  not  bronze  metal  but  bronze  flesh  that 
Europe  wanted.  A  new  tyranny,  blood-thirsty  and 
cruel,  and  built  upon  war,  forced  toward  the  Niger 
delta.  .  .  .  The  native  industries  were  changed  and 
disorganized.  Family  ties  and  government  were 
weakened.  For  into  the  heart  of  Africa,  this  dev 
ilish  disintegration,  coupled  with  Christian  rum  and 
Mohammedan  raiding,  penetrated.  The  face  of  Af 
rica  was  turned  south  to  these  slave-traders  instead 
of  northward  toward  the  Mediterranean,  where  for 
two  thousand  years  and  more  Europe  and  Africa 
had  met  in  legitimate  trade  and  mutual  respect. 
The  full  significance  of  the  battle  of  Tenkabidou, 
which  overthrew  the  Ankias,  was  now  clear.  Here- 


The  Negro — A  Review  105 

after  Africa  was  to  appear  before  the  world,  not  as 
the  land  of  gold  and  ivory,  of  Sausa  Musa,  and 
Meroe,  but  as  a  captive  slave,  dumb  and  degraded. 
The  mutual  desire  to  avoid  a  painful  subject  has  led 
the  historians  to  gloss  over  the  details  of  the  slave 
trade,  and  leave  the  impression  that  it  was  a  local 
west-coast  phenomenon,  and  confined  to  a  few  years. 
It  was,  on  the  contrary,  continent-wide,  and  cen 
turies  long,  and  an  economic,  social,  and  political 
catastrophe,  unparalleled  in  history. 

The  by-product  of  slavery  was  perhaps  worse 
than  the  slave  trade  itself.  The  number  of  slaves 
exported  is  not  known.  Hubbard  estimates  that  in 
four  centuries  fifteen  millions  were  brought  to  Amer 
ica.  Our  author  says : — 

Certainly  it  seems  that  at  least  ten  millions  were 
expatriated.  Probably  every  slave  imported  rep 
resented  an  average  of  five  corpses  in  Africa  or  upon 
the  high  seas.  The  African  slave  trade  meant  the 
elimination  of  at  least  sixty  million  (60,000,000) 
Negroes  from  their  fatherland.  The  Mohammedan" 
slave  trade  meant  the  expatriation  or  forcible  mi 
gration  of  nearly  as  many  more.  It  would  be  con 
servative  then  to  say,  that  the  slave  trade  in  Africa 
cost  one  hundred  million  (100,000,000)  souls.  Yet 
people  ask  today  the  cause  of  the  stagnation  of  cul 
ture  in  that  land  since  1600. 

The  chapter  on  "The  Negro  in  the  United  States" 
deals  with  the  question  "from  the  standpoint  of  the 


106  Chums  and  Brothers 

Negro  group  itself  and  seeks  to  show  how  they  re 
acted  against  it,  what  they  did  to  secure  their  free 
dom,  and  what  they  are  doing  with  their  partial 
freedom  today."  It  is  not  easy  to  read  Southern 
History  from  Southern  writers  or  Southern  litera 
ture  without  sympathy  for  the  South  in  the  destruc 
tion  of  its  social  and  economic  system.  It  is  well, 
therefore,  that  the  history  of  the  Negro  in  the 
United  States  should  be  presented  from  the  stand 
point  of  the  Negro  himself.  If  Southern  society 
went  to  pieces  because  of  the  Civil  War,  what  as  to 
the  overthrow  of  the  African  usages  and  economic 
life  because  of  slavery  ? 

"The  transplanting  of  the  Negro  was  a  social  revo 
lution.  Marriage  became  geographical  and  tran 
sient,  while  women  and  children  were  without  pro 
tection.  The  private  home  as  a  self-protective,  in 
dependent  unit  did  not  exist.  That  powerful  in 
stitution,  the  polygamous  African  home,  was  com 
pletely  destroyed  and  in  its  place  in  America,  arose 
sexual  promiscuity,  a  weak  community  life,  with 
common  dwellings,  meals,  and  child  nurseries.  The 
internal  slave  trade  tended  further  to  weaken  natural 
ties.  A  small  number  of  favored  house  servants  had 
their  private  homes,  came  in  contact  with  the  cul 
ture  of  the  master,  and  assimilated  much  of  the 
American  civilization.  This,  however,  was  excep 
tional;  broadly  speaking,  the  greatest  social  effect 
of  slavery  was  to  substitute  for  the  polygamous 


The  Negro — A  Review  107 

Negro  home  a  new  polygamy,  less  guarded,  less  ef 
fective,  and  less  civilized." 

As  to  the  mooted  question,  which  of  the  two  views 
of  American  slavery  is  correct,  our  author  remarks, 

Both  are  true.  They  are  not  opposite  sides  of 
the  same  shield.  They  are  different  shields.  There 
are  pictures,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  house  servant' 
in  the  great  country  seats  and  in  towns,  and  on  the 
other  hand,  of  the  field  laborers  who  raised  great 
crops  of  tobacco,  cotton  and  rice.  ...  It  was  the 
milder  and  far  different  Virginia  house  service  and 
the  personal  retainership  of  town  life  in  which  most 
white  children  grew  up;  it  was  this  that  impressed 
their  imaginations  and  which  they  portray  so  viv 
idly.  The  Negroes,  however,  knew  the  other  side, 
for  it  was  under  the  harsher,  heartless  driving  of 
the  fields  that  fully  nine-tenths  of  them  lived. 

The  discussion  of  Reconstruction  from  the  Negro 
standpoint  is  interesting  reading.  Flemming,  in  his 
history  of  Reconstruction  in  Alabama,  writes, 

To  the  rich,  hereditary  slave  holders,  who  were 
relatively  few  in  numbers,  it  was  more  or  less  a  mat 
ter  of  property,  and  that  was  enough  to  fight  about 
at  any  time.  But  to  the  average  white  man,  who 
owned  no  Negroes,  and  who  worked  for  his  living 
at  manual  labor,  the  question  was  a  vitally  social 
one.  The  Negro  slave  was  bad  enough;  but  the 
Negro  freed  by  outside  interference  and  turned  loose 
on  society,  was  much  more  to  be  feared. 

While  this  feeling  was  doubtless  a  factor  in  the 


108  Chums  and  Brothers 

situation,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  it  is  a  matter  al 
ways  to  be  regretted  that  the  South  could  not  or  did 
not  accept  the  logical  results  of  the  war.  Perhaps 
they  could  not.  If  this  was  so,  then  the  story  of 
the  last  half  century  had  to  be  what  it  was.  Upon 
this  point  the  author  writes : — 

Quite  unexpectedly  and  without  forethought  the 
nation  had  emancipated  four  million  slaves.  Once 
the  deed  was  done,  the  majority  of  the  nation  was 
glad  and  recognized  that,  after  all,  this  was  the  only 
result  of  a  fearful  four  years'  war  that  in  any  sense 
justified  it.  But  how  were  the  results  to  be  secured 
for  all  time?  There  were  three  possibilities: — (1) 
to  declare  the  slaves  free  and  leave  them  to  the  mercy 
of  their  former  masters;  (&)  to  establish  a  careful 
government  guardianship,  designed  to  guide  the 
slaves  from  legal  to  real  economic  freedom;  (3)  to 
give  the  Negro  the  political  power  to  guard  him 
self  as  well  as  he  could  during  the  development.  It 
is  easy  to  forget  that  the  United  States  tried  each 
one  of  these  in  succession,  and  was  finally  forced  to 
adopt  the  third,  because  the  first  had  failed  utterly, 
and  the  second  was  thought  too  paternal  and  too 
costly.  To  leave  the  Negroes  helpless  after  a  paper 
edict  of  freedom  was  manifestly  impossible.  It 
would  have  meant  that  the  war  had  been  fought  in 
vain. 

The  discussion  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau  and  the 
whole  problem  of  Reconstruction  is  sane.  The  au 
thor  neither  minifies  nor  magnifies  the  situation.  To 


The  Negro — A  Review  109 

the  charge  of  extravagance  on  the  part  of  the  Ne 
gro  governments,  he  writes, 

The  extravagance,  though  great,  was  not  univer 
sal,  and  much  of  it  was  due  to  the  extravagant  spirit 
pervading  the  land  in  a  day  of  inflated  currency  and 
speculation. 

This  finds  an  interesting  affirmation  in  "Flem- 
ming's  History"  (quoted  above)  : 

All  sense  of  values  had  been  lost,  which  may  ac 
count  for  the  fabulous  and  fictitious  prices  in  the 
South  for  several  years  after  the  war,  and  may  also 
account  for  the  liberality  of  appropriations  of  the 
first  legislatures  after  the  surrender.  The  legisla 
tors  had  become  accustomed  to  making  appropria 
tions  of  thousands  and  even  millions  of  dollars,  with 
no  question  as  to  where  the  money  was  to  come 
from,  "for  the  state  had  three  public  printers  to 
print  the  money." 

One  is  tempted  to  quote  quite  fully  from  the  book 
upon  this  topic  of  Reconstruction.  Resisting  this, 
it  may  be  said  that  on  the  whole,  the  Negroes  need 
not  be  ashamed  of  the  work  done  by  the  Negro  gov 
ernments  immediately  after  the  war.  The  construc 
tive  work  of  the  Negro  governments  deserves  more 
than  a  word.  They  gave  the  South  three  things : 
— Democratic  government,  free  public  schools,  new 
social  legislation.  More  than  this,  in  legislation 
covering  property,  the  wider  functions  of  the  state, 


110  Chums  and  Brothers 

the  punishment  of  crime  and  the  like,  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  the  laws  on  these  points  were  not  only  so 
different  from  and  revolutionary  to  the  laws  of  the 
older  South,  but  they  were  so  wise  and  so  well  suited 
to  the  needs  of  the  new  South,  that  in  spite  of  the 
retrogressive  movement  following  the  overthrow  of 
the  Negro  governments,  the  mass  of  this  legislation 
with  the  elaborations  and  developments,  still  stands 
upon  the  statute  books  of  the  South. 

The  history  since  the  "triumph  of  reaction  in  the 
South"  is  so  recent  that  it  need  not  be  dwelt  upon 
in  this  review.  To  the  writer  of  this  review,  the  leg 
islation  of  the  reaction  and  since,  aimed  at  the  Ne 
gro,  seems  "class  legislation,"  and  therefore  abhor 
rent  to  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  constitution. 

Perhaps  the  present  is  too  close  to  the  era  of  Re 
construction  for  a  judicial  appraisement.  Hereto 
fore  we  have  had  the  Northern  point  of  view  and  the 
Southern  point  of  view.  Now  we  have  the  Negro 
point  of  view,  and  the  student  of  this  period  will 
have  to  consider  all  three,  if  he  is  a  student.  Mean 
while  the  story  of  the  progress  of  the  Negro  since 
the  surrender,  reads  like  a  romance.  If  one  wishes 
the  statistics,  they  are  well  epitomized  in  this  book. 
Heretofore  the  case  of  the  Negro  has  been  stated  for 
him.  Now  the  Negro  has  his  own  spokesman.  And 
this  particular  book  should  enhearten  every  colored 
man  who  too  often  has  been  made  to  feel  that  there 
is  a  certain  stigma  in  color. 


The  Negro — A  Review  111 

In  one  of  the  sermons  of  my  boyhood,  the  preacher 
said,  "The  Mohammedan  wars  in  Europe  ended  when 
the  followers  of  Christ  and  those  of  Mohammed 
learned  to  respect  each  other."  Similarly,  we  may 
expect  the  present  war  in  Europe  will  end  when  the 
Teutons  and  the  Allied  nations  shall  have  learned 
mutual  respect.  So  in  the  South,  the  problem  of 
the  South  will  find  its  right  solution  when  the  South 
ern  white  man  and  the  Southern  colored  man  learn 
thus  to  respect  each  other.  Perhaps  out  of  the  Eu 
ropean  conflict  we  shall  learn  some  lessons;  and  if 
Europe  is  to  become  more  democratic,  the  Southern 
States  of  the  United  States  will  not  be  left  behind. 

August,  1916. 


TRUE  BLUE 

INTRODUCTION 

THIS  appreciation  appeared  in  TJie  Atlanta  In 
dependent  of  May  26,  1917.  It  is  from  the  pen 
of  a  young  man  in  the  Railway  Mail  Service,  who 
occasionally  writes  for  the  colored  press. 

This  "appreciation"  is  so  genuine  and  so  expres 
sive  of  the  inner  thought  of  the  Negro,  that  it  seems 
right  and  appropriate  to  include  it  in  a  little  vol 
ume  which  tries  to  show  that  our  colored  citizens 
are  after  all  "Just  Folks." 

The  little  incident  in  the  chain-gang  was  com 
pleted  in  this  way.  The  man  referred  to  is  the  one 
who  found  his  voice.  His  term  in  the  chain-gang 
expired  shortly  after,  and  he  found  work  in  or  near 
Albany.  He  was  present  at  a  religious  service  and 
told  the  incident  and  concluded  with  these  words : — 
"I  thought  that  if  a  white  man  thought  enough  of 
me  to  shake  hands  with  me  under  those  circumstances, 
that  God  must  love  me." 


112 


TRUE   BLUE 

An  Appreciation 

WELBORN  VICTOR  JENKINS 

AS  grateful  as  my  people  are,  I  sometimes  fear 
they  fail  to  realize  how  much  we  are  in 
debted  to  the  people  of  New  England.  Certainly  I 
do  not  believe  that  there  is  an  intelligent  Negro  in 
America  who  feels  that  the  extent  of  gratitude  we 
owe  to  Lincoln  can  ever  be  reached.  Yet  even  Mr. 
Lincoln,  because  he  earnestly  desired  to  reconcile  a 
divided  country,  would  have  been  compelled  to  mod 
ify  his  opinions  and  demands  relative  to  making 
freedmen  and  citizens  of  former  slaves.  There  is 
no  criticism  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  course — that  is  to  say, 
the  course  he  in  all  probability  would  have  taken. 
He  had  wonderful  foresight.  He  was  indeed  a  very 
wonderful  man.  I  believe  there  is  not  in  all  history 
a  parallel  to  Abraham  Lincoln.  To  be  called  "Our 
Liberator"  by  the  Negro  race,  the  "Savior  of  the 
Union"  by  the  people  of  the  North,  and  yet  at  the 
same  time  "Our  best  Friend"  by  the  people  of  the 
South  against  whom  he  had  waged  a  dreadful  war, 

113 


114  Chums  and  Brothers 

then  to  be  known  by  us  all  as  "the  greatest  Amer 
ican  since  Washington,"  is  to  be  remarkable  in  no 
siriall  sense  of  the  word. 

Nevertheless  we  owe  a  still  deeper  debt  of  grati 
tude  (if  such  a  thing  can  be)  to  those  staunch  New 
Englanders,  that  hardy  though  kindly  race  of  in 
tellectual  near-Gods,  who  started  the  great  ball  of 
Abolitionism  rolling;  and  who  persistently  kept  on 
calling  from  the  very  first  for  the  "previous  ques 
tion"  ;  kept  on  calling  in  a  voice  that  could  be  heard 
distinctly  above  the  noise  of  stormy  debate,  the 
screams  of  the  press,  and  the  thunders  of  the  plat 
form. 

North  and  South  admit  now  that  slavery  was  a 
curse  and  Emancipation  a  blessing  for  the  entire 
country.  We  have  buried  the  hatchet  of  "section 
alism,"  we  have  "bound  up  the  nation's  wounds," 
we  have  become  in  a  very  hopeful  measure  one  grand 
country. 

But  the  status  of  citizenship  which  shall  be  ac 
corded  the  sons  of  former  slaves  still  seems  to  be  an 
open  question.  The  class  of  education  which  shall 
be  designated  for  us  and  the  degree  thereof  is  still 
a  matter  of  gravest  concern  to  certain  students  of 
the  Negro  problem.  It  is  just  here  that  we  owe 
another  dual  debt  to  New  England  which  I  even  fear 
again  we  do  not  always  remember  as  we  should. 

Directly  after  the  war,  there  came  among  us 
ministers  and  teachers  from  New  England,  bringing 


True  Blue  115 

with  them  the  highest  message  of  the  white  man's 
civilization.  We  startled  the  world  by  the  manner 
in  which  we  "lighted  off"  from  the  sparks  of  this 
eternal  anvil.  We  took  blaze  like  a  field  of  dry 
grass.  From  many  centers  of  the  South,  storms  of 
criticism  arose.  It  was  loudly  contended  that  higher 
education  would  ruin  the  Negro  as  a  laborer.  This 
was  the  day  when  some  wag  coined  the  celebrated 
gibe,  that,  "Soon  as  you  teach  a  Nigger,  'haec-hic- 
hoc,'  it  is  good-bye  forever  to  his  'Gee,  haw,  Buck.'  ' 
It  was  thought  that  any  step  the  Negro  was  car 
ried  beyond  the  "three  R's"  was  fraught  with  the 
direst  consequences.  Many  foremost  thinkers  ad 
vocated  total  ignorance  for  the  blacks  as  the  sur 
est  guarantee  of  white  supremacy. 

As  a  race  we  might  have  been  very  apt  to  mis 
construe  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  education. 
Having  lived  for  three  hundred  years  in  the  luxu 
rious  and  aristocratic  South  it  would  have  been  easy 
for  us  to  look  upon  education  as  a  thing  which 
leads  away  from  work  instead  of  toward  it.  It 
would  have  been  easy  for  us  to  look  upon  "book 
learning"  as  an  end  in  itself.  Having  only  lately 
escaped  from  the  horrors  of  slavery,  it  was  easy 
for  us  to  consider  colleges  as  stepping-stones  to  a 
life  of  luxurious  ease,  or  a  sort  of  open  sesame  to 
an  esoteric  cult  of  mysterious  free-masonry  whose 
votaries  deigned  to  look  with  occasional  favor  upon 
the  great  mob  of  lesser  mortals  whom  God  must 


116  Chums  and  Brothers 

have  made  in  overtime.  And  thus  as  in  the  case  of 
many  individuals  we  might  have  gutted  our  ship 
upon  the  reefs  of  snobbery. 

"The  thing  I  found  so  surprising  in  Tennyson," 
wrote  Ellen  Terry  in  her  memoirs,  "was  the  sublime 
simplicity  of  him."  This  is  what  a  highly  refined 
and  delicately  impressionistic  woman  has  to  say  of 
the  supreme  master  of  lofty  and  restrained  senti 
ment  in  our  language  and  one  of  the  few  great  poets 
ever  born. 

The  few  great  men  I  have  met  made  this  same 
peculiar  impression  upon  me.  Booker  T.  Washing 
ton  was  as  far  from  being  a  snob  as  I  from  being 
the  prime  minister.  A  young  man  of  my  acquaint 
ance  once  accepted  an  invitation  to  go  fishing  with 
him,  glad  of  a  chance  of  seeing  how  a  great  man 
would  act  behind  the  scenes,  and  of  hearing  what 
he  would  say.  My  friend  says  that  he  was  almost 
shocked  to  find  that  Mr.  Washington  would  crack 
jokes  and  gossip  and  relate  commonplaces  like  the 
most  ordinary  of  men.  Wonderful  thing,  this  sim 
plicity  of  great  men!  And  we  might  fill  the  world 
with  books  on  the  lives  of  Thoreau,  Edison,  Bur 
roughs,  and  all  that  glorified  host  of  immortals  that 
love  the  simple  way  and  the  simple  life. 

But  we  will  draw  nearer  and  speak  of  one  we 
know  and  have  seen  in  the  flesh,  who  comes  and  goes 
quietly  among  us,  shedding  a  kindly  influence  like 
some  benign  spirit  loaned  to  us  from  heaven. 


True  Blue  117 

Some  months  ago  a  certain  gentleman  attended 
a  celebration  in  a  South  Georgia  town,  and  after 
the  exercises,  unlike  most  distinguished  visitors,  he 
did  not  tarry  overlong  with  the  "elect,"  but  as  soon 
as  possible  betook  himself  to  the  precincts  outside 
the  city  walls,  where  the  unfortunate  toil  in  sorrow 
all  day  under  cruel  gun-men,  and  sleep  at  night 
chained  to  posts  like  wild  beasts.  There  was  to  be 
a  service  and  a  white  minister  preached  upon  some 
one  of  the  threadbare  themes.  The  prisoners  lis 
tened  with  bowed  heads,  conscious  of  their  degrada 
tion.  And  when  the  sermon  was  ended  they  looked 
expectantly  toward  the  keeper  for  the  harsh  order 
to  rise  and  lockstep  to  their  quarters.  At  this  in 
stant  a  gentleman  who  had  said  nothing,  asked  per 
mission  to  go  down  and  shake  the  hand  of  each  un 
fortunate  and  he  looked  with  a  smile  of  kindness 
and  love  into  each  downcast  eye  as  he  passed.  And 
the  face  of  each  human  dog  lighted  up  one  after 
another  until  one  succeeded  in  finding  voice  to  say, 
"We  hope  you  will  come  again.  No  one  like  you 
ever  came  among  us  and  shook  our  hands  before." 
The  good  man  said,  "I  hope  to  come  again,  but  I 
hope  not  to  see  you  when  I  come."  And  that  one 
word  of  love,  hope,  and  kindness,  made  a  Christian 
of  the  convict  who  even  in  the  degradation  of  his 
chains  caught  the  divine  spark  which  beamed  from 
that  noble  face.  Compare  this  way  of  making  men 
good  with  that  other  way  of  the  lash  and  the  oath 


118  Chums  and  Brothers 

and  you  lay  hold  onto  a  mighty  thought.  The  con 
verted  man  was  a  convict  in  the  chain-gang  at  Al 
bany,  Ga.,  and  the  gentleman,  the  good  man  to  whom 
I  refer  is  no  other  than  our  own ,  whose  un 
obtrusive  ways  and  whose  love  for  the  higher  yet 
simpler  life  almost  make  us  forget  what  manner  of 
great  man  he  is. 

The  Caucasian  race  is  a  superior  race  .  .  .  su 
perior  in  the  civilization  which  is  the  standard  of 
the  world.  Whether  according  to  Agassiz,  the 
zenith  of  that  race  has  been  reached  in  the  belli 
cose  nations  of  Saxony,  and  from  hence  there  will 
be  a  waning  of  the  Aryan  domination  of  the  world 
with  a  corresponding  rise  to  power  of  the  darker 
nations  I  am  not  prepared  to  say.  But  for  today 
(and  who  can  say  for  how  many  days  to  come)  the 
Indo-Germamc  breed  of  the  human  race  tops  the 
list.  But  the  superiority  of  that  race  or  any  other 
race  is  lost  on  me  the  moment  it  stoops  to  vain  and 
vaunting  show  or  yields  to  prejudice.  I  am  trying 
to  say  that  when  a  white  man  feels  called  upon  to 
impress  me  what  a  low-born,  ignorant  plodder  I  am 
as  compared  with  himself  and  demands  of  me  cour 
tesies  which  he  proudly  refuses  to  return,  I  do  not 
feel  my  degradation  as  he  would  wish,  and  his  su 
periority  vanishes,  to  say  the  least.  I  may  not  an 
swer  him,  but  I  smile  to  myself,  and  thus  do  I  "save 
my  face." 

But  when  a  man  like meets  me  upon  the 


True  Blue  119 

broad  plane  of  humanity,  treats  me  like  a  human 
being  whom  God  made,  and  did  not  leave  for  the  help 
to  finish,  leads  me  into  forgetting  for  the  time  that 
I  am  identified  with  a  climbing  race,  then  straight 
way  a  consciousness  of  my  true  status  by  compari 
son  falls  upon  me  like  a  feeling  of  guilt,  and  I  grow 
sad;  even  tears  well  up  as  I  gaze  upon  the  almost 
unattainable  heights  to  which  the  mighty  Caucasian 
has  climbed. 

It  is  a  fact  that  numbers  of  our  friends  at  the 
North  who  were  most  insistent  in  their  demands  for 
equal  rights  for  the  br other-in-black,  changed  their 
minds  when  the  great  tests  came  after  the  war,  .  .  . 
especially  those  who  happened  to  come  South  to  live 
and  thus  came  face  to  face  with  the  question.  In 
many  cases  they  adopted  the  views  and  attitudes  of 
the  South.  I  know  scores  of  them  to  whom  the  word 
"Nigger"  comes  perfectly  naturally  and  who  send 
all  "Negroes,  dogs,  porters,  and  messengers"  to  the 
rear  as  a  matter  of  course. 

But  out  of  New  England  has  come  a  dyed-in-the- 
purple  coterie  that  is  rock-ribbed  in  its  opinions 
on  the  subject,  iron-clad  in  its  attitude,  and  bomb 
proof  against  all  change  of  front.  Conscious  of 
innate  superiority  which  is  the  culmination  of  ages 
of  culture  they  have  made  the  profession  of  being 
without  prejudice.  And  they  have  lived  up  to  it. 
They  remind  me  of  the  "Old  Guard."  They  will 
die  on  this  conviction  but  they  will  not  yield  a  sin- 


180  Chu/ms  and  Brothers 

gle  inch.  With  no  intention  of  kindling  antagonism 
tween  the  races,  they  have  instilled  race  pride  and 
self-respect  into  our  people,  and  while  encouraging 
a  healthy  discontent  with  conditions  and  while  hold 
ing  up  the  same  present  ideals  to  us  that  have  been 
held  up  to  their  own  people  for  a  thousand  years, 
and  while  exploding  the  theories  so  laboriously  set 
forth  in  Mr.  Dixon's  books,  their  intention  has  al 
ways  been  to  help  the  Negro  in  the  South  as  a  part 
of  the  South. 

Among  those  noble  people  who  came  from  the 
North  and  have  spent  their  lives  in  unselfish  mis 
sionary  work  among  our  people,  two  stand  out  in 

my  mind  as  incomparable.  These  are  Miss  

and  .  For  these  the  colored  people  fail 

entirely  to  find  words  that  can  in  the  slightest  way 
express  their  love,  devotion,  and  gratitude. 

The  son  of  a  New  England  minister.  Exactly 

thirty  years  ago  he  came  South  to  ,  and  has 

been  intimately  identified  with  the  work  of  that 
school  ever  since.  Hundreds  of  grateful  students 
look  back  upon  their  association  with  him  as  the 
most  ennobling  influence  that  has  touched  their 
lives.  He  has  so  much  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  in 
making  himself  at  home  among  the  lowliest  of  peo 
ple.  And  he  has  the  courage  to  live  up  to  his  con 
viction.  Though  the  gentlest  of  men,  he  boldly 
crashes  through  the  most  ancient  bars  of  custom 
and  convention  when  they  stand  athwart  the  path  of 


True  Blue  121 

his  belief  as  to  what  colored  people  are  entitled  to 
as  human  beings  and  as  citizens  of  this  country. 

Sometime  before  my  mother  died  I  took  a  notion 
to  put  into  a  short  story  the  likeness  of  the  greatest 
friend  to  colored  people  I  ever  knew.  It  was  the 
last  story  I  ever  read  to  my  mother.  She  wanted 
to  know  who  "Henry  Maxwell"  was ;  and  I  told  her 
that  he  was  one  of  the  students  of  the  University 
whose  wonderful  proficiency  in  mathematics  it  was 
easy  to  change  over  into  "Henry  Maxwell's' *  marvel 
lous  gift  as  a  dramatic  speaker.  And  those  who  have 
read  my  "We  Also  Serve,"  will  at  once  recognize 
"Professor  Baer"  as  no  other  than  -  — ,  who 

seems  to  me  to  be  the  most  unbiased  and  the  most 
sincere  white  man  in  his  love  for  the  colored  that 
I  have  known. 

May  26,  1917.     The  Atlanta  Independent. 


WHY  NOT  MAKE  FRIENDS? 


I  RECENTLY  asked  a  lad  who  has  attained  such 
years  that  he  might  be  called  into  active  mili 
tary  service,  what  he  would  do  if  the  United  States 
should  declare  war  against  Germany.  The  quick 
reply  came,  "I  think  I  should  put  on  my  short 
pants. "  We  laughed,  and  I  said,  "I  hope  you  have 
two  pair,  one  for  me." 

More  recently,  a  young  man  speaking  of  the  ap 
proaching  visit  of  ex-President  Taft  to  our  city, 
remarked,  "I  should  like  to  hear  President  Taft. 
Do  you  suppose  that  I  can  get  in?"  He  is  a  young 
man  of  considerable  prominence  for  one  of  his  years. 
He  has  attained  his  majority;  he  pays  his  taxes; 
he  is  rather  unusual  for  one  so  young.  I  venture  to 
assert  that  few  young  men  of  his  state  are  a  more 
valuable  asset  to  the  state  than  he.  I  could  not 
but  ask  myself,  Why  should  he  put  such  a  ques 
tion?  However,  I  simply  advised  him  to  make  the 
venture  and  see  how  it  would  come  out. 

Fortunately,  it  may  be,  an  invitation  came  from 
the  Chamber  of  Commerce  for  the  college  men  to 

122 


Why  Not  Make  Friends? 

attend  in  a  body  to  hear  Mr.  Taft  and  incidentally 
we  were  advised  that  seats  would  be  reserved  for 
us.  So  the  invitation  was  given  out  in  chapel, 
though  no  word  was  said  as  to  the  reservation.  We 
trusted  that  that  would  take  care  of  itself. 

On  the  great  occasion  we  occupied  some  of  the 
assigned  seats.  But  it  was  a  little  trying,  as  all 
the  assigned  seats  were  not  occupied  and  as  we  had 
naturally  chosen  the  best  of  the  assignment,  to  be 
asked  to  move  into  the  poorer  section  to  make  room 
for  some  belated  people  who  ordinarily  do  not  have 
special  seats  assigned  to  them.  But  we  were  gra 
cious  and  moved  as  directed. 

Curiously  enough,  as  we  sat  and  listened  to  a  mas 
terly  presentation  of  present-day  issues,  we  noted 
among  the  crowd  that  stood  in  the  rear  of  the  great 
hall  a  few  of  our  own  sort.  They  were  standing 
among  the  others  and  seemed  not  out  of  place,  and 
no  one  apparently  marked  their  presence.  I  was 
led  to  wonder  if  after  all  certain  lines  of  demarka- 
tion  are  not  more  artificial  than  natural. 

Early  in  the  great  war,  I  wrote  an  editorial  with 
the  title  "Why  Not  Make  Friends?"  In  it  I  called 
attention  to  the  United  States  as  the  "melting  pot," 
in  which  emigrants  from  all  the  countries  of  Eu 
rope  were  fused  into  the  composite  mass  of  Amer 
ican  citizenry.  And  I  deplored  the  fact  that  some 
of  us,  who  are  native  and  not  imported,  should  some 
how  remain  outside  the  melting  pot.  I  prophesied 


Chums  and  Brothers 

that  if  the  time  should  arise  when  America  should 
need  soldiers  to  spring  to  her  defence,  that  shoulder 
to  shoulder  with  the  naturalized  citizens  from  Eu 
rope,  would  march  to  the  defence  of  their  native 
land  those  of  us  whose  ancestors  lived  in  Africa.  In 
view  of  the  possibility  before  us,  I  again  raise  the 
question,  "Why  Not  Make  Friends?" 

The  visitor  from  abroad  to  the  Southern  states 
is  always  puzzled  at  the  situation  which  confronts 
him.  He  cannot  understand  that  a  country  whose 
corner-stone  is  "democracy"  should  also  keep  up  a 
sort  of  bureaucratic  regime.  In  Flemming's  "His 
tory  of  Reconstruction  in  Alabama,"  the  author 
quotes  an  ante-bellum  orator  as  exclaiming,  prior  to 
the  outbreak  of  '61,  "The  world  is  arrayed  against 
us  in  our  philosophy  of  government.  It  is,  therefore, 
our  business  to  educate  the  world." 

Since  that  day,  the  education  has  been  reversed 
and  the  remark  now  sounds  foolish.  But  an  orator 
of  today  might  exclaim  in  similar  phrase,  "In  the 
treatment  of  our  social  problem,  the  world  is  against 
us ;  it  is  therefore  up  to  us  to  educate  the  world." 

Perhaps  the  trend  of  events  is  the  other  way.  The 
Man  of  Galilee  once  exclaimed,  "Your  fathers  stoned 
the  prophets,  and  you  build  them  monuments."  Why 
must  each  generation  repeat  the  same  mistake  and 
refuse  to  listen  to  the  prophets  of  its  own  day,  while 
building  monuments  to  those  of  the  parent  gener 
ation  ? 


Why  Not  Make  Friends?  125 

"I  have  no  lamp,"  exclaimed  one  of  the  Revo 
lutionary  fathers,  "but  the  lamp  of  experience." 
Why  not,  then,  learn  by  experience,  and  recognize 
that  if  the  fathers  made  a  mistake,  we  may  likewise 
be  making  a  mistake. 

The  mills  of  the  gods  do  not  always  grind  slowly 
and  just  now  the  mill-wheels  are  moving  with  ac 
celerated  speed.  Nicholas  of  Russia,  who  might 
have  gone  down  into  history  as  the  greatest  peace 
maker  of  all  time,  will  now  be  happy  if  permitted 
to  live  upon  his  own  estates  as  a  private  citizen. 
The  Russian  Jews  suddenly  find  restrictions  lifted 
and  political  prisoners  find  the  prison  doors  opened. 
Even  in  Germany  some  voices  are  speaking  more 
loudly  than  formerly  and  the  prophecy  seems  to  be 
that  even  autocratic  Germany  will  put  on  something 
of  democracy.  How  is  it  at  home? 

A  French  essayist,  writing  upon  "Nationalism," 
in  comment  upon  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  claims 
that  France  is  the  most  completely  unified  nation 
of  them  all.  This  may  account  for  the  tremendous 
fight  that,  all  unexpectedly,  that  nation  has  put  up 
in  self-defence.  The  author  writes  enthusiastically 
on  the  other  side,  of  the  power  of  the  United  States 
to  be  the  "melting  pot"  of  all  the  peoples  of  Eu 
rope  that  have  sought  its  hospitable  shores.  But 
he  closes  with  the  remark  that  this  country  has  not 
yet  been  willing  to  nationalize  either  the  African 
or  the  Asiatic.  And  he  implies  that  here  are  two 


126  Chums  and  Brothers 

problems  to  tax  American  statesmanship  in  the  near 
future. 

There  is  no  question  in  my  mind  that  the  Heav 
enly  Father  intends  that  the  nations  and  races  of 
the  world  shall  live  together  in  peace,  unity,  and 
harmony.  For  us  the  Asiatic  question  can  wait  for 
the  present.  But  the  question  of  the  status  of  our 
native  colored  citizens  cannot  long  remain  without 
answer. 

The  lessons  from  the  great  war  point  to  the 
proper  solution.  Surely  in  the  crisis  that  now  faces 
this  country  if  we  felt  we  knew  with  positive  assur 
ance  that  all  the  people  within  our  borders  were 
happy,  we  could  feel  sure  of  putting  up  just  such 
a  fight  as  we  honor  the  French  for  doing.  But  one- 
tenth  at  least  of  our  population  is  not  happy  and 
ought  not  to  be.  And  yet,  in  the  event  of  war  the 
colored  people  of  this  nation  who  have  been  loyal 
to  the  flag  in  every  crisis  hitherto,  will  be  loyal 
now. 

But  the  war  which  has  already  emancipated  the 
Russian  and  the  Jew  of  Russia,  and  which  seems 
likely  to  emancipate  the  Pole  of  Germany  and  of 
Austria,  and  which  will  without  doubt  bury  the  Irish 
question  for  Great  Britain,  should  result  in  the  sec 
ond  Emancipation  of  the  Freedmen  of  this  country. 
Surely  it  shall  not  be  said  as  of  aforetime,  "Ye  can 
interpret  the  signs  of  the  weather,  but  ye  cannot 
discern  the  signs  of  the  time." 


Why  Not  Make  Friends?  127 

And  so  again  I  press  the  question,  "Why  not  make 
friends?" 

March,  1917. 

NOTE: — This  was  written  a  year  and  a  half  before  the  war 
closed.  The  events  since  are  an  interesting  commentary  upon 
the  topic  discussed.  Despite  a  loyalty  unexampled  on  the 
part  of  our  colored  citizens,  the  country  as  a  country  has  not 
yet  awakened  to  the  advantage  of  making  friends  with  all 
peoples  within  its  boundaries. 


"THE  CAR  SHED" 

YEARS  and  years  ago,  my  son,  before  you  were 
born,  I  was  admiring  a  picture  of  roses. 
And  I  ventured  an  honest,  simple,  and  inartistic 
comment  to  my  artist  friend.  And  the  comment 
was,  "The  picture  is  beautiful;  every  rose  is  per 
fect." 

To  this  the  artist  friend  replied,  "True,  every 
rose  is  indeed  perfect;  and  that  is  the  fatal  defect 
of  the  picture.  In  looking  at  roses,  you  see  only 
one  rose,  to  which  all  the  others  contribute  a  set 
ting.  You  may  change  your  point  of  view  and  ad 
mire  another  rose,  but  it  is  always  one  rose."  And 
I  had  had  a  lesson  in  art  appreciation. 

Later,  I  heard  a  similar  comment  upon  that  won 
derful  painting  of  Rosa  Bonheur,  the  famous  painter 
of  animals,  "The  Horse  Fair,"  which  hangs  in  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  in  Central  Park.  As  one 
looks  at  the  picture,  he  sees  that  every  horse  is  per 
fect;  as  a  study  of  horses,  the  painting  is  a  great 
success.  But  as  a  picture,  the  eye  wanders  from 
horse  to  horse,  searching  for  a  dominant  element  in 
the  painting,  to  which  the  other  elements  are  con 
tributory,  but  this  the  eye  fails  to  find. 

128 


"The  Car  Shed"  129 

That  was  a  brave  company  of  youth  that  we  saw 
off  to  the  Officers*  Training  Camp,  that  Tuesday 
afternoon,  Laddie.  Sixty  men  there  were,  and  you 
among  them,  representing  a  great  cause,  and  though 
feeling  a  great  responsibility,  eager  to  go.  And  we 
who  gathered  in  your  honor,  your  fathers,  mothers, 
friends,  sharing,  in  a  sense,  your  eagerness,  were 
vividly  conscious  of  certain  elements  in  the  picture 
which  were  not  at  the  surface. 

And,  first,  we  knew  that  you,  men,  were  starting 
to  the  Training  Camp  in  response  to  a  demand  that 
you,  yourselves,  had  created.  The  Officers'  Train 
ing  Camp  at  Fort  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  was  granted 
in  response  to  a  petition  of  colored  college  youth, 
who,  finding  the  regulation  camps  closed  to  them, 
united  in  a  demand  upon  the  government  for  a  camp 
of  their  own.  All  honor  to  those  college  students, 
who,  debarred  by  limitation  of  numbers  from  going 
with  you,  had  by  expressing  willingness  to  go,  and 
signing  the  petition,  given  force  to  it  and  so  com 
manded  the  attention  of  the  government  at  Wash 
ington. 

We  knew,  secondly,  my  boy,  that  those  who  went 
to  the  camp  would  be  expected  to  do  a  year's  work 
in  three  months.  We  understood  the  stress  this 
would  mean  to  your  physique,  your  mentality,  and 
your  character;  we  also  knew  that  men  in  the  other 
camps  were  failing  to  meet  these  demands,  and  we 
trembled  while  we  hoped  for  you.  And  our  prayer 


130  Chums  and  Brothers 

was  that,  having  for  the  first  time  in  all  history 
an  equal  chance  with  the  other  man,  you  might  make 
good. 

And,  Laddie,  we  were  not  ignorant  of  the  dan 
gers,  physical  and  moral,  that  were  sure  to  accom 
pany  and  surround  the  camp.  And  we  prayed  the 
prayer  of  the  Master  for  his  disciples,  not  that  you 
should  be  taken  out  of  the  world,  but  that  you  might 
be  kept  from  the  evil.  We  prayed  that  you  might 
have  the  clear  vision  to  know  the  wrong,  however 
attractive  the  guise,  and  shun  it;  that  you  might 
recognize  the  right,  however  plain  the  garb,  and  pur 
sue  it.  And  when  the  boys  come  back — if  come  back 
they  do — may  they  come  with  clean  bodies,  clean 
minds  and  clean  souls,  knights  without  fear  and 
without  reproach. 

And  this  brought  up  the  shadow,  which,  whether 
we  wished  it  or  not,  we  knew  was  present.  Some  of 
us  recalled  the  clarion  call  on  Sunday  evening  from 
the  Scotch  Chaplain,  "Meet  me  in  Flanders,"  and 
we  knew  that  some  of  you  might  meet  him  in  Flan 
ders,  and  might  not  come  back.  We  also  remem 
bered  the  remark  of  the  wise  man  on  that  same  eve 
ning,  "We  are  sending  you  forth  not  to  die  for  your 
country,  but  to  live  for  it ;"  but  some  of  us  recalled 
a  chapel  talk  when  another  wise  man  reminded  us 
that  going  to  war  to  kill  is  brutal,  but  that  going 
to  war  with  the  willingness  to  be  killed  for  a  great 
cause,  this  glorifies  war.  And,  further,  my  son,  do 


"The  Car  Shed"  131 

you  recall  that  the  last  time  that  you  read  the 
Scriptures  in  public  you  closed  with  that  statement 
of  the  Master  that  sums  up  the  entire  Gospel, 
"Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man 
lay  down  his  life  for  his  friend."  Whether  you  ap 
preciated  this  or  not,  you  are  the  men  of  whom  Lin 
coln  spoke  at  Gettysburg,  the  men  who  give  "the  last 
full  measure  of  devotion,"  because  you  were  giving 
yourselves.  And  you  gave  without  reservation. 

There  were  then  at  that  moment,  Laddie,  all  the 
elements  of  a  grand  canvas;  the  subjective  elements, 
these  to  which  I  have  alluded.  These  gave  the  color 
scheme.  There  were  the  objective  elements,  you, 
men,  sixty  of  you ;  we,  your  friends,  a  crowd  of  us ; 
the  cars  waiting,  which  were  to  take  you  as  they 
take  others;  and  the  dim,  dusty,  dingy  old  carshed. 
There  were  lights  and  there  were  shadows ;  there  was 
the  foreground,  the  background  and  the  middle  dis 
tance.  As  each  person  has  his  own  horizon,  inde 
pendent  of  those  of  others ;  as  each  has  his  own 
rainbow,  a  rainbow  all  to  himself  which  no  one  else 
may  share,  so  each  of  us  composed  the  picture  ele 
ments  into  a  grouping  of  our  own ;  and  each  of  you 
young  men  was  the  center  of  some  picture.  Oh,  the 
glory  of  it,  that  the  love  of  a  universe  is  not  centered 
upon  a  few !  Each !  Each  of  you  was  supremely 
dear  to  some  one ! 

And  you,  Laddie,  you,  my  boy,  were  the  domi 
nant  note  of  my  picture!  How  could  it  be  other- 


Chums  and  Brothers 

wise!  I  was  with  you  when  there  came  to  you  the 
first  glimmering  suggestion  of  a  coming  possibility, 
like  the  cloud,  "no  larger  than  a  man's  hand."  I 
saw  you  put  the  suggestion  aside  as  foreign  to 
righteous  plans  and  ambitions  along  the  lines  you 
love.  I  saw  the  suggestion  return  to  you  again  and 
again,  and  yet  again,  with  an  insistence  that  could 
not  be  gainsaid.  And  I  was  with  you,  a  disciple 
unasleep,  when  in  your  Gethsemane  you  bowed  in  ac 
ceptance  of  the  thing  that  must  be;  and  I  partook 
of  your  joy  that  came  with  the  full  surrender,  the 
joy  that  comes  to  every  man  when  he  gives  himself 
to  the  highest  call.  You  and  your  fellows,  my  son, 
entered  into  the  experience  of  the  Christ  in  the  gar 
den,  when,  we  are  told,  "There  appeared  unto  Him 
an  angel  from  heaven,  strengthening  Him." 

That  was  a  wonderful  gathering  that  Tuesday 
afternoon  in  the  old  car  shed.  There  were  tears, 
Laddie,  but  no  weeping.  There  were  hand-clasps, 
and  such  hand-clasps,  but  almost  no  words.  In  such 
moments,  the  tongue  is  silent;  the  eye  and  the  hand 
become  eloquent.  And  so  the  great  train,  slowly 
but  surely  took  you  away  from  us.  You  wrote  back, 
"It  was  a  great  send-off."  It  was  more  than  that. 
It  was  a  sacrament ! 


COLORED  BOYS  IN  CAMP  AT  FORT  DES 
MOINES 

July  18,  1917. 

CAPTAIN  BALLOU,  in  charge  of  the  training 
camp  at  Fort  Des  Moines  remarks,  "We  are 
paying  these  boys  $100  a  month,  and  we  are  making 
them  earn  it."  That  the  captain  is  correct,  the 
following  program  which  comes  from  one  of  the 
men  in  camp  testifies : 

MORNING 

5 :45— Reveille. 

6 :00 — Breakfast. 

6:30 — Policing  (cleaning  up  the  camp). 

7:00— First  drill  (one  hour). 

8:00 — 5-minute  rest. 

8 :05— 5-mile  >ike. 

9:00 — Physical  exercise  (one  hour). 

10:00 — Bayonet  drill  (one  hour). 

11:00 — Conference  until  noon. 

12:15— Dinner. 

AFTERNOON 

1:00  to  2:30 — Semaphore  signalling. 
133 


134  Chums  and  Brothers 

2 :30  to  3 :00— Rifling. 

3 :30  to  4 :00 — Conference  on  the  Manual  of  Arms. 

4 :30 — An  hour  to  clean  up  and  dress  for  retreat. 

5:45 — The  retreat  with  inspection  of  arms. 

5 :30 — Supper. 

7 :00  to  9 :00 — Conference,  or  study  usually  in  the 
dining-room  where  we  keep  quiet. 

9:45 — Taps  and  to  bed. 

A  local  paper  notes  that  from  every  corner  of 
the  United  States,  1200  Negro  youth  have  gathered 
for  the  R.O.T.C.  at  Fort  Des  Moines — 40  per  cent, 
men  of  high  professional  standing,  40  per  cent  of 
them  with  college  training,  10  per  cent  with  business 
training  and  10  per  cent  soldiers  from  the  regular 
army  colored  regiments.  These  men  are  drilling  in 
preparation  for  officers'  positions  in  the  Negro  regi 
ments  to  be  raised  by  the  selective  draft  law. 

Fourteen  companies,  each  occupying  a  building 
with  its  officers,  have  been  formed,  and  have  been 
drilling  nine  hours  a  day,  learning  formation  drill, 
rifle  practice,  signal  practice,  and  all  the  manuals  of 
the  army  that  they  could  assimilate  in  twenty  hours 
of  study  and  discussion.  One  of  the  most  interest 
ing  characters  at  the  camp  is  Sergeant  George  A. 
Holland,  who  has  served  almost  twenty  years  in 
the  regular  army  as  regimental  sergeant  of  the 
Twenty-fourth  infantry  colored.  Sergeant  Holland 
stands  6  feet  tall  and  weighs  239  pounds.  He  out 
ranks  all  the  other  supply  sergeants  in  the  coun- 


Colored  Boys  m  Camp  at  Fort  Des  Momes    135 

try,  and  has  only  been  prevented  from  climbing 
higher  because  of  the  rule  that  only  white  officers 
shall  command  colored  troops.  But  the  sergeant 
may  now  become  captain  or  even  colonel  in  the  con 
scripted  army. 

Sergeant  Holland  is  with  Co.  7  of  the  camp.  This 
company  is  made  up  entirely  of  Georgia  men,  and 
of  them  the  sergeant  comments,  "Fine  bunch  of 
men.  Nearly  all  of  them  are  graduates  or  have 
been  students  in  colleges  in  Georgia."  To  Georgia 
belongs  the  credit  of  having  more  men  than  any  other 
state.  Georgia  is  the  only  state  having  an  entire 
company  made  up  of  men  from  the  state. 

The  following  quotation  from  an  address  by  Cap 
tain  Ballou  deserves  wide  reading: — 

Here  are  assembled  representative  colored  men 
from  East,  West,  North,  and  South,  to  prove  or  dis 
prove  their  fitness  for  the  responsibilities  of  com 
mand.  These  duties  require  more  than  patriotism 
and  personal  courage.  They  require  extended  mili 
tary  knowledge,  trained  judgment  in  handling  men 
under  the  varying  conditions  of  camp  and  field ;  high 
standards  of  truth  and  honor ;  exceptional  qualifica 
tions  as  instructors  of  soldiers  and  administrators 
of  all  the  affairs  upon  which  depend  their  content 
ment,  health,  discipline,  and  military  efficiency,  and 
also  that  intangible  and  important  quality  that  is 
expressed  in  the  term  'leadership.'  These  qualities 
you  must  develop  and  possess  if  you  are  to  com 
mand  the  confidence  and  best  efforts  of  your  sol- 


136  Chums  and  Brothers 

diers.  They  must  see  in  you  one  who  always  looks 
out  for  the  welfare  of  his  men,  and  secures  it,  and 
who  can  be  trusted  to  accomplish  the  maximum  re 
sult  with  the  minimum  cost  in  life  and  limb.  Physi 
cal,  mental,  and  moral  strength,  patience,  endur 
ance,  and  courage,  industry,  alertness,  and  obedience 
to  law  are  merely  a  few  of  the  qualities  you  must 
possess  to  attain  success. 

The  paper  comments,  "Every  Negro  at  the  Post 
is  a  man  of  intelligence  and  imagination.  He  real 
izes  that  the  opportunity  for  his  race  to  make  good 
has  come.  He  does  not  want  to  fail." 


AT  FORT  DES  MOINES 

THE  second  half  of  the  three  months  of  the  Geor 
gia  Boys  at  Fort  Des  Moines  opened  July  29. 
These  second  six  weeks  will  move  more  rapidly  than 
have  the  first  six  weeks.  The  following  quotations 
from  letters  received  from  the  Fort  deserve  a  wide 
reading  and  indicate  something  of  the  spirit  and 
the  experiences  of  our  sons,  to  whom  has  come  for 
once  an  opportunity  equal  to  that  of  their  white 
brothers.  We  may  believe  that  they  are  standing 
up  to  this  opportunity. 

A  post-card  may  sometimes  say  a  good  deal,  as 
does  the  following  taken  from  such  a  card,  "Very 
hot  here  and  the  work  is  hard.  We  are  all  trying 
to  make  good.  The  fellows  are  all  well."  I  am  be 
ginning  to  like  that  word  "fellows."  It  has  a 
warmth  in  it  that  we  who  are  hungry  for  warmth 
need.  But  one  who  knows  something  of  the  heat 
that  comes  as  hot  waves  in  the  North  central  states 
can  understand  what  it  means  to  be  "hot"  in  Des 
Moines.  We  do  not  know  it  in  the  South,  but  the 
fellows  are  plucky  and  will  endure  it. 

Another  "fellow"  writes  more  fully:  "This  army 
life  is  fine  and  I  enjoy  it.  Although  it  is  rather 

137 


138  Chums  and  Brothers 

warm  here  the  fellows  are  holding  up  nicely.  To 
day  we  went  four  miles  from  here  to  the  rifle  range 
spending  the  whole  day  in  shooting.  At  noon  we 
were  served  box  lunches  consisting  of  bread  and  but 
ter,  jelly  sandwiches,  sliced  fish,  and  hot  coffee.  Our 
latest  work  and  in  fact  the  work  of  the  whole  week 
has  been  in  forming  company  for  marching,  includ 
ing  patroling.  That  part  is  great.  We  go  right 
out  in  thickets,  through  high  grass,  cross  streams 
and  ditches  as  though  in  actual  combat.  It  is  ar 
ranged  that  certain  fellows  are  the  enemy.  Under 
an  instructor  they  go  out  perhaps  a  half  a  mile  or 
a  mile.  When  they  have  their  positions,  those  of 
us  who  are  left  behind  are  to  capture  them  or  be 
captured  by  them.  Yesterday  we  captured  our 
enemy  after  two  and  a  half  hours,  making  in  all, 
perhaps  three  miles.  Tuesday,  our  enemy  was 
rather  crafty.  They  went  on  about  a  half  mile,  and 
to  keep  from  being  discovered  they  covered  them 
selves  in  some  brown  hay  that  resembled  our  Khaki. 
Not  expecting  any  one  to  be  in  the  piles  of  hay  we 
went  boldly  up  and  when  we  were  about  sixty  feet 
they  fired  upon  us.  In  actual  battle,  we  should  all 
have  been  captured.  We  are  fortunate  in  having 
good  instructors  who  seem  interested  in  us.  I  must 
tell  you  my  shooting  record.  I  have  been  successful 
in  getting  an  average  of  twenty-two  points  a  day 
out  of  twenty-five.  Today  I  made  thirty-eight  out 
of  a  possible  fifty.  Harry  made  thirty-nine." 


At  Fort  Des  Moines  1891 

Another  fellow  puts  it  this  way,  on  June  22,  after 
two  weeks  in  camp:  "I  have  just  come  off  guard 
duty  about  two  hours  ago.  Yesterday  I  was  de 
tailed  for  guard  duty.  I  went  on  at  eleven  o'clock 
Saturday  morning  and  was  relieved  twenty  hours 
later.  One  is  on  duty  two  hours  and  off  four  hours, 
and  so  on.  One  cannot  take  off  a  piece  of  the  gar 
ment  while  on  guard.  One  has  even  to  rest  with 
the  ammunition  belt  and  bayonet  on.  This  has  been 
a  very  hard  week.  The  entire  regiment  is  to  parade 
in  the  Stadium  this  afternoon  in  public.  There  is 
to  be  a  public  celebration  in  which  we  take  part." 
Surely  our  fellows  are  getting  much  practice  in  all 
the  details  of  army  life. 

This  last  quotation,  written  July  14,  when  the 
camp  was  a  month  old,  is  significant  of  the  real 
spirit  of  our  sons. 

"I  have  been  here  a  month  today,  yet  I  feel  that 
I  have  grown  more  than  a  month  in  power.  This 
has  been  the  greatest  month  of  my  life.  I  pray  God, 
that  should  I  live,  my  life  may  be  better  on  account 
of  this  month  and  the  two  more  that  I  am  hoping 
for." 

This  last  quotation  indicates  two  things :  one  that 
the  boys  in  the  R.O.T.C.  are  awaking  to  the  fact 
that  they  may  be  called  into  actual  war;  and  that 
they  are  adjusting  their  minds  to  the  possible  per 
sonal  outcome.  Our  boys  are  imbibing  the  spirit  of 
Claudius  Lavergne,  the  French  lad,  who  wrote  to 


140  Chums  and  Brothers 

his  family:  "Tonight  I  leave  for  the  trenches.  To 
night  I  shall  be  watching  over  you,  rifle  in  hand. 
You  know  who  will  be  watching  over  me." 


THE  OLD  CAR  SHED  AGAIN 

ONCE  upon  a  time,  and  this  is  veritable  history, 
I  was  called  in  the  dead  of  winter  into  the  wilds 
of  New  Hampshire  to  the  funeral  of  a  dear  friend. 
The  snow  lay  deep  upon  the  ground.  It  covered  the 
fences.  And  along  the  country  roads  and  over  those 
fences  came  relatives  and  friends  from  near  and 
from  far,  to  pay  the  last  respects  to  the  friend  who 
would  never  again  in  this  world  respond  with  ex 
pressions  of  friendship.  And  I  recall  that  as  we 
sat  in  that  quiet  front  room  in  the  New  Hampshire 
farmhouse,  and  sang  a  few  quiet  hymns  and  listened 
to  a  quiet  discourse,  and  bowed  our  heads  during 
the  quiet  prayer,  that  during  the  pauses  of  the 
prayer,  I  heard  the  chink  of  dishes  in  the  next  room 
where  kindly  neighbors  were  preparing  a  meal  for 
those  who  had  come  from  a  distance,  and  who  must 
be  fed  before  they  took  their  long  journey  into  the 
cold. 

So  it  always  is,  life  in  the  midst  of  death.  The 
old  world  rolls  on  and  ushers  in  the  new  day  despite 
our  agony  and  our  heartbreak.  I  have  read  that 
upon  the  blood-stained  battle  fields  of  the  present 
war  in  Europe,  that  this  spring  the  flowers  never 

141 


Chums  and  Brothers 

bloomed  so  profusely  or  were  so  beautiful.  It  is  as 
though  the  Eternal  Father  tried  to  cover  up  the 
effects  of  human  malice  and  hate,  and  hoped  by  song 
of  bird  and  beauty  of  flower  and  twinkle  of  star  to 
call  men  back  to  their  better  estate,  and  to  assure 
man, 

"That  life  is  ever  lord  of  death, 
And  love  can  never  lose  its  own." 

But  I  confess  that  it  was  with  a  little  jolt  to  the 
feelings  that  as  we  turned  down  the  long  walk  that 
leads  to  the  street,  bent  upon  the  sweet  mission  of 
saying  "God  be  with  you"  to  our  soldier  boys,  this 
time  not  clad  in  civilian  attire,  but  in  khaki,  and 
carrying  commissions  as  they  went,  it  was  a  little 
jolt  to  the  feelings,  I  repeat,  that  as  we  started  down 
the  long  walk  that  other  group  of  lads  came  tumbling 
down  the  steps  that  lead  into  the  boys'  hall,  clad 
not  in  khaki,  but  in  their  togs  bent  upon  a  prac 
tice  game  upon  the  gridiron.  It  is  the  old,  old  cry, 
"The  King  is  dead.  Long  live  the  King."  Nor 
would  we  have  it  otherwise  and  I  accepted  it  as  in 
evitable  that  the  game  must  go  on. 

And  so  we  gathered  again  in  the  dim  and  dusty 
old  Car  Shed,  much  the  same  company  that  gath 
ered  in  the  same  place  in  June  to  send  our  sons  to 
Fort  Des  Moines.  There  was  the  same  repression 
of  feeling  as  on  the  other  occasion.  Again,  there 


The  Old  Car  Shed  Again  143 

were  tears,  but  no  outcry,  handclasps  and  such  hand 
clasps,  but  almost  no  words.  I  recall  that  in  June 
one  matron  took  me  by  the  hand  and  as  I  saw  her 
eye  filled  with  tears,  mine  also  filled,  and  I  said, 
"Madam,  do  not  cry,  for  if  you  do,  I  shall,"  and 
she  said  on  this  occasion,  "You  see  I  am  not  crying 
now,  for  the  boys  have  done  so  well."  And  I  might 
have  said,  "Madam,  this  is  the  time  to  cry  and  not 
that.  Then  we  could  have  prophesied  this  gather 
ing.  But  who  can  prophesy  when  these  men  shall 
return  or  in  what  shape  or  under  what  circum 
stances?"  But  I  did  not  say  it.  That  thought  was 
in  every  one's  mind. 

But  I  missed  the  boy.  I  had  had  one  handclasp 
and  one  word,  when  other  friends  claimed  him,  and 
loth  as  I  was  I  could  not  hold  him  against  them 
nor  would  I.  But  I  longed  for  one  more  word,  one 
more  look  into  his  face.  I  looked  almost  vainly,  but 
all  at  once  I  found  him  looking  for  me.  With  a  ges 
ture  of  command  he  called  me  to  him,  and  while  his 
right  hand  sought  mine  with  a  warmth  and  a  vigor 
new  to  me,  with  a  gesture  of  protection  he  threw 
his  left  arm  around  my  shoulders  as  though  to  de 
fend  me  from  an  approaching  onslaught  of  Vandal, 
Hun  and  Teuton.  It  seemed  as  though  we  stood 
there  for  hours  but  it  was  only  for  seconds,  while  the 
railway  officials  called  out,  "Board  the  train,  men." 
But  that  gesture  of  protection  seemed  to  me  to  typify 
America  defended  by  Ethiopia;  the  Son  of  an  Ethi- 


144  Chums  and  Brothers 

opian  Princess,  the  grandson  of  an  Egyptian  Pha 
raoh  standing  guard  over  the  Pilgrim-Puritan- 
heritage. 

The  student  camp  at  Fort  Des  Moines  was 
granted  in  response  to  a  student  demand  for  an  op 
portunity  for  officer-training  for  colored  students 
as  for  white.  The  granting  of  that  petition  by 
President  Wilson  represents  the  one  constructive 
movement  for  the  Negro  since  the  passage  of  the  Fif 
teenth  Amendment.  And  when  the  boy  signed  that 
petition  he  knew  and  I  knew  that  the  plans  for  his 
career  which  we  had  made  all  vanished  into  thin  air ; 
and  that  there  was  for  him,  the  khaki,  the  camp,  it 
may  be  France,  or  Flanders.  And  it  may  be  that 
some  night  he  will  write  me  from  "somewhere  in 
France,"  as  wrote  Bernhard  Claudius  Lavergne,  the 
young  French  soldier,  to  his  mother:  "Tonight  we 
leave  for  the  trenches.  Tonight  I  shall  be  watch 
ing  over  you,  rifle  in  hand.  You  know  who  is  watch 
ing  over  me." 

Because  I  believe  that  God  is  good,  I  have  faith  to 
believe  that  out  of  the  welter  and  destruction  of  the 
present,  in  His  own  time  He  will  bring  a  lesson  and 
blessing  to  humanity.  But  Bernhard-Claudius-La- 
vergne  had  a  brief  experience  standing  guard  at  the 
trenches,  and  who  knows  how  soon  your  son  or  mine 
may  follow  him?  Ever  since  that  petition  was 
signed,  I  have  looked  upon  our  youth,  not  as  dead, 
but  as  dying;  dying  of  the  great  white  plague  of 


The  Old  Car  Shed  Again  145 

war  that  is  enmeshing  us  all.  And  it  seems  to  me 
that  if  there  is  anything  that  I  can  do  to  show  to 
them  my  admiration,  and  my  love,  now  is  the  time. 
It  may  not  be  for  long. 

O,  Righteous  Father,  with  whom  is  no  variable 
ness,  neither  shadow  of  turning,  grant  that  these, 
Thy  sons  and  our  sons,  shall  not  go  forth  upon  a 
fruitless  errand.  Grant,  we  beseech  Thee,  that  they 
and  the  hosts  that  battle  with  them  shall  accomplish 
that  purpose  which  we  believe  is  Thy  purpose;  and 
that  their  sacrifice  shall  usher  in  the  reign  of  uni 
versal  brotherhood;  that  Liberty,  Democracy,  and 
Peace  shall  come,  and  shall  come  permanently  to  all 
nations  and  to  all  peoples  that  inhabit  the  earth. 


A  LABORATORY  STUDY  IN  SOCIOLOGY 

ASA  H.  GORDON 

TO  any  one  interested  in  Social  Science,  the 
training  camp  at  Fort  Des  Moines  has  been  a 
most  interesting  laboratory.  The  first  thing  to  at 
tract  the  attention  of  the  trained  Sociologist  as  he 
daily  observes  the  phenomena  here  is  the  peculiar 
revelations  of  long  dormant  elements  of  various  char 
acters  brought  about  by  the  group  activities  and 
purposes  here.  The  revelations  are  sometimes  con 
trary  to  expectations.  An  unexpected  act  in  a  place 
like  this  produces  a  remarkable  influence  upon  the 
disused  part  of  a  person's  character.  The  evan 
gelist  would  say,  "Men  have  been  born  again"  out  of 
this  turmoil  of  preparation  for  the  great  world  game. 
The  untrained  man  would  label  the  souls  of  some  who 
seemingly  have  radically  changed,  as  "made  in  Fort 
Des  Moines."  But  science  teaches  her  disciples  that 
these  apparent  radical  changes  are  only  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  individual  in  obedience  to  the  funda 
mental  law  of  self-preservation  has  assembled  and 
put  to  use  those  elements  of  his  character  best  fitted 
to  assure  his  survival  in  his  present  environment. 
As  is  generally  known  the  group  of  men  gathered 
146 


A   Laboratory  Study  m  Sociology         147 

here  at  Fort  Des  Moines  represents  almost  all  pro 
fessions  followed  by  colored  men.  Out  on  the  pa 
rade  ground  in  every  company,  you  can  find  the 
lawyer,  the  doctor,  the  student,  the  mail-carrier,  the 
business  man,  and  the  "old  soldier"  marching  side 
by  side.  These  men  vary  a  great  deal  in  personal 
ideas  and  in  individual  mental  development,  but  if 
soldiers  are  to  be  produced  here,  there  must  be  team 
work.  In  the  company  barrack-room  and  elsewhere, 
the  man  of  individualistic  tendencies  has  become 
somewhat  communistic  in  his  practices  if  not  in  his 
theories.  All  this  is  done  because  it  is  realized  by 
those  concerned  to  be  necessary  for  the  attainment 
of  the  purpose  of  the  camp.  This  is  a  great  object 
lesson  of  the  way  democracy  must  come  and  results 
in  the  realization  by  all  classes  that  it  is  necessary 
for  the  highest  happiness  of  all,  individually  and 
collectively. 

I  said  that  revelations  of  character  are  sometimes 
contrary  to  expectation.  For  example,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  game  here,  a  professional  man  made 
this  confession: — "I  have  not  uttered  a  prayer  in 
ten  years,  but  when  I  saw  a  young  fellow  just  gradu 
ated  from  my  old  college  kneel  beside  his  bunk  in 
prayer  last  night,  I  felt  a  great  longing  for  spiritual 
power,  and  I,  too,  fell  down  before  the  Great  Com 
mander  of  the  Universe."  So  men  have  found  lost 
chords  of  their  lives  here  in  this  camp.  Men  with 
pro-social  tendencies  have  found  it  necessary  to  be 


148  Chums  and  Brothers 

aggressive  here  because  men  of  anti-social  habits  are 
plentiful  in  the  army. 

A  few  weeks  after  the  grand  beginning,  the  shadow 
of  the  color  line  fell  heavily  upon  the  camp.  Men 
were  refused  meals  at  restaurants  in  Des  Moines 
and  moving  picture  houses  "reserved"  special  seats 
for  the  "boys  out  at  the  camp."  The  fighting  spirit 
was  aroused  as  it  never  would  have  been  in  the  same 
group  of  men  outside  an  army  camp.  But  military 
discipline  calmed  the  troubled  seas,  and  the  men  de 
cided  that  the  end  to  be  gained  was  worth  more  sac 
rifice  and  a  different  sacrifice  than  that  they  planned 
to  make.  But  on  the  question  of  the  color  line, 
men's  minds  have  been  changed  out  here,  and  when 
the  men  here  who  do  not  go  to  France,  get  back 
home,  a  mob  in  their  vicinity  will  be  in  a  danger 
zone  without  doubt.  The  camp  has  been  worth  while 
as  an  antidote  to  mob  rule  and  lynch  law  in  the 
South. 

Perhaps  the  most  general  and  profoundest  trans 
formations  that  have  come  about  have  been  in  the 
purposes  and  ideals  of  the  men  concerning  the  great 
world  struggle.  The  men  out  here  have  continually 
been  spoken  of  as  the  flower  of  the  race.  This  is 
highly  figurative  and  only  partly  true,  of  course. 
It  has  seemingly  been  assumed  by  many  that  every 
man  who  came  did  so  because  he  believed  the  great 
war  to  be  purely  a  fight  for  democracy  and  civiliza 
tion  and  he  desired  to  play  his  part,  or  at  least  de- 


A   Laboratory  Study  in  Sociology         149 

sired  to  see  the  Negro  race  do  its  share.  This  also 
was  not  true.  The  motives  of  the  men  who  came 
here  were  very  much  mixed,  as  they  ever  have  been 
in  great  movements  such  as  the  Crusades,  for  exam 
ple.  Some  came  purely  for  adventure;  some  of  the 
army  men  came  simply  because  they  were  ordered; 
some  came  for  a  healthful  vacation;  some  came  to 
escape  conscription ;  some  came  for  pure  love  of  the 
fighting  game;  and  some  came  for  one  hundred  dol 
lars  a  month.  Many  came  because  they  believed 
that  the  ultimate  end  of  the  game  in  Europe  is 
to  be  democracy  and  peace.  But  once  a  man  got 
here  his  individual  purpose  began  to  be  transformed 
into  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  the  camp.  Here  was 
demonstrated  the  influence  of  the  social  mind.  The 
fact  that  a  great  many  of  the  men  here  were  work 
ing  to  gain  ability  for  the  game,  made  others  play 
hard  to  keep  from  doing  them  an  injustice.  The 
expectations  of  the  masses  of  people  outside  so  often 
expressed  by  speakers  who  came  here  helped  to  mold 
the  social  mind.  It  was  often  stated  and  is  yet 
held  by  some,  that  the  failure  of  the  camp  here 
would  mark  the  failure  of  the  Negro.  Thoughtful 
people,  of  course,  realized  that  this  was  not  true,  as 
no  single  event  can  decide  the  destiny  of  a  people, 
but  it  had  its  effect.  It  was  said  that  the  Negro 
race  was  on  trial  here.  That  was  only  remotely 
true.  Then  there  came  personal  touches  of  lives 
that  counted.  For  example,  a  young  man  who  came 


150  Chums  and  Brothers 

here  with  rather  mercenary  aims  and  without  the 
slightest  intention  of  receiving  a  commission  re 
ceived  a  card  one  day  from  a  little  girl,  a  girl  whom 
he  loved,  on  which  was  written  among  other  things : 
"Now  I  know  you  aren't  afraid  nor  a  slacker,"  This 
changed  the  young  man's  purpose  and  from  that 
day  he  was  here  to  go  to  France.  Most  of  the 
regular  army  men  here  naturally  believe  in  fight 
ing.  They  are  larger  than  any  other  single  group 
and  so  their  school  of  thought  has  profoundly  in 
fluenced  the  social  mind  in  coming  to  the  conclusion 
that  a  group  must  acquire  its  rights  by  fighting  for 
them.  So  when  William  Pickens  of  Baltimore  came 
here  and  said:  "The  runaway  slave  was  the  first 
Abolitionist;  the  Negro,  nor  any  other  people  ever 
gained  liberty  without  fighting  for  it.  If  we  fight 
in  the  great  world  war  it  is  because  we  as  a  race 
shall  profit  by  it,"  he  received  the  greatest  ovation 
of  any  speaker  who  has  so  far  been  here. 

Officers  of  the  army  have  stated  that  the  men 
at  Fort  Des  Moines  far  surpass  in  physical  fitness 
the  white  men  elsewhere  and  the  city  of  Des  Moines 
has  been  surprised  that  an  army  camp  could  con 
tain  such  a  fine  set  of  men.  But  the  student  of 
Social  Science,  believing  as  he  must,  in  the  power 
of  education,  has  not  been  surprised.  One  of  the 
finest  and  most  gratifying  statements  that  has  yet 
been  made  by  a  visitor  to  the  men  was  that  of  Mr. 


A   Laboratory  Study  m  Sociology         151 

C,  H.  Tobias,  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. :  "I  am  not  sur 
prised  that  you  men  have  made  good  here,  for  I 
know  whence  you  came." 

As  is  always  true  of  any  great  gathering  for 
some  noble  purpose,  the  camp  has,  I  believe,  been 
a  tremendous  help  to  every  man  whether  he  gets  a 
commission  or  not.  It  has  helped  many  men  phys 
ically,  it  has  helped  some  morally,  and  it  has  helped 
the  country.  Of  course  the  average  man  will  hold 
that  only  those  who  go  to  France  have  been  suc 
cessful.  We  would  all  like  to  play  in  the  great  game 
across  the  waters.  But  the  thoughtful  man  will 
realize  that  not  all  who  were  successful  here  in  some 
way  were  successful  in  a  military  way.  Because^ 
here  as  elsewhere,  where  human  frailty  steps  aside, 
artificial  barriers  have  in  some  cases  prevented  the 
survival  of  the  fittest.  So  President  Hope  was  right 
when  he  said  in  an  address  here,  "I  think  as  much 
of  the  man  who  honestly  tried  to  get  into  this  camp 
and  failed  as  I  do  of  you  men  here,  and  I  think  as 
much  of  the  men  here  honestly  trying  to  make  good 
but  who  a  few  days  hence  will  not  be  here,  as  I  do 
of  you  who  will  remain  .  .  .  they  all  have  been  will 
ing  to  do  their  duty."  Every  man  who  has  been 
here  these  weeks  is  a  better  man  and  a  better  citi 
zen  and  inside  or  outside  the  army,  whether  he  goes 
to  France  or  not,  has  already  rendered  a  service, 
gentle  reader,  to 


152  Chums  and  Br oilier s 

Your  flag  and  my  flag, 

The  flag  that  flies  above 
The  nation  where  we  work  and  live, 

The  Country  that  we  love. 

NOTE:— This  study  of  the  "boys"  at  Fort  Des  Moines  was 
made  by  one  of  their  number.  Mr.  Gordon  was  of  the  class 
.of  1915.  With  several  of  his  classmates  he  entered  the 
R.O.T.C.  Being  under  weight,  he  was  not  commissioned  and 
after  the  camp  closed  he  entered  the  "Y"  work  and  did  some 
eifective  work  at  Camp  Gordon,  and  later  with  the  S.A.T.C. 

Mr.  Gordon  is  a  student  in  Sociology,  a  subject  in  which 
he  specialized,  and  he  looked  at  the  camp  at  Fort  Des  Moines 
from  that  point  of  view. 


FROM  THE  CANTONMENTS 


r  1 1HE  training  officers  reached  their  cantonments 
J[  to  report  for  duty  November  1,  1917.  They 
have  been  a  busy  company  of  young  men  ever  since. 
But  they  find  time  to  keep  us  in  touch  with  their 
work.  Their  letters  have  a  wonderful  interest,  but 
are  markedly  free  from  any  word  as  to  their  spe 
cific  work,  and  we  understand  that  they  are  under 
orders  to  be  very  careful  not  to  write  about  camp 
matters  and  military  operations.  Some  of  these 
letters  have  a  more  than  personal  interest.  All  of 
the  Atlanta  University  students  have  had  courses 
in  sociology,  in  which  the  problems  of  the  Negro 
have  had  more  than  passing  notice  and  yet  these 
students  are  for  the  first  time  getting  in  touch  with 
the  real  problems  of  their  own  people.  They  all 
speak  with  surprise  of  the  ignorance  and  the  illiter 
acy  of  their  men.  They  cannot,  in  too  many  cases, 
write  their  own  names.  Few  have  the  equivalent  of 
four  grammar  grades  and  very  few  indeed  have  been 
through  a  grammar  school.  Many  do  not  know 
why  they  are  in  camp  and  think  it  a  "chain-gang." 

153 


154  Chums  and  Brothers 

Two  quotations  will  show  the  spirit  of  the  officers : — 

We  have  153  men  and  among  them  is  one  man 
only  who  has  had  any  college  training  (this  is  the 
writer).  One  other  has  had  high  school,  and  only 
from  15  to  20  have  had  grammar  school  education. 

This  writer  is  from  the  South,  but  his  men  seem 
to  be  from  the  East,  for  he  further  comments: 

The  situation  really  surprised  me,  especially  here 
in  the  East  where  schools  and  colleges  are  to  be  had 
for  the  asking.  So  many  in  my  battalion  can 
neither  read  nor  write  that  a  night  school  has  been 
opened. 

A  hopeful  element,  duplicated  in  all  the  letters, 
appears  in  this  letter: — 

But  on  the  whole  they  are  a  fine  lot  and  just  as 
willing  and  obedient  as  can  be,  and  they  are  taking 
things  for  what  they  are  worth.  Since  they  have 
become  uniformed  and  have  come  to  be  somewhat 
soldierly,  they  are  making  a  good  showing. 

The  second  quotation  is  from  an  observer: 

I  met  the  captain.  He  was  a  young  man  of  a 
genuine  soldierly  bearing,  about  thirty  years  old. 
He  told  me  that  he  had  243  men  in  his  company, 
and  that  there  were  63  unable  either  to  read  or  to 
write.  The  government  intends  to  furnish  material 
to  teach  them,  but  he  said  his  four  lieutenants  gave 
the  money  out  of  their  pockets.  The  two  lieuten 
ants  and  two  privates  who  have  taught  have  already 


From  the  Cantonments  155 

begun  to  teach  these  men.  In  a  heart  to  heart  talk 
with  the  illiterate  privates  the  captain  told  them 
that  he  expected  everyone  of  them  to  write  a  card 
home  at  Christmas.  Twenty  can  write  already. 
They  do  this  after  a  hard  day's  drilling  is  done. 
When  the  government  begins  its  school,  he  intends 
to  report  "not  a  single  illiterate." 

In  a  different  line  is  the  following  quotation: 

I  saw  the  lieutenants  hard  at  work  with  their  men. 
I  watched  the  officers  of  both  races  do  their  work. 

Lieutenant  carried  me  to  his  barracks.     You 

would  have  been  proud  to  see  how  prompt  his  men 
were  in  saluting  him,  and  to  note  the  fine  relation 
existing  between  him,  a  mere  youth,  and  those  sturdy 
men. 

A  curious  incident  was  brought  to  the  writer's 
notice  which  illustrates  the  attitude  of  our  student- 
officers  toward  their  work.  A  mother  said  to  her 
lieutenant-son,  that  she  could  be  reconciled  if  he 
were  fighting  for  France.  But  she  could  not  bring 
herself  to  think  of  his  fighting  for  the  United  States, 
which  .  .  .  Her  sentence  was  interrupted  by  her 
son,  whose  commission  was  not  a  week  old: — 
"Mother,  I  am  an  officer  in  the  United  States  Army, 
and  as  an  officer,  I  cannot  permit  anyone,  not  even 
my  mother,  to  speak  disparagingly  of  my  country." 

In  similar  vein  is  this  from  a  "Y"  Secretary: 

When   the   account   of  the  Houston   trial   began 


U56  Chwms  and  Brothers 

leaking  out  here,  our  men  crowded  around  the  daily 
newspaper  to  read  the  comments  and  they  began  to 
utter  evil  comments  about  the  country.  I  felt  it  my 
duty  to  say  something  to  them. 

I  tried  to  think  and  found  myself  burning,  too. 
I  prayed  for  something  to  tell  them.  Finally  I  said, 
"No  one  has  the  right  to  take  the  law  into  his  hands 
and  now  we  have  this  to  be  thankful  to  God  for — 
we  have  commissioned  officers  of  our  own  race  who 
can  adjust  our  wrongs  in  the  proper  way  so  that 
such  a  shame  shall  not  be  ours  again." 

To  write  or  to  act  in  a  manner  loyal  to  our  noble 
country,  and  convincing  to  the  extremely  cloudy 
mind  of  the  young  colored  American  is  a  task  that 
calls  for  the  master  mind  of  our  leaders.  If  they 
condemn  it  ...  treason;  if  they  uphold  it,  in  full 
.  .  .  distrust  from  those  whom  they  would  lead. 
My  thoughts  are,  those  who  take  the  law  into  their 
hands  deserve  punishment,  but  the  conditions  under 
which  such  things  take  place  surely  should  be  con 
sidered  in  the  reckoning.  I  think  the  men  who  irri 
tated  these  men  should  be  called  into  question. 

Another  lieutenant  writes  of'  the  men  from  the 
South:— 

They  tell  me  of  conditions  out  of  which  they  have 
come  that  are  largely  those  of  slavery.  I  was  dis 
posed  not  to  believe,  but  others  confirmed  the  facts. 

This  lieutenant  doubtless  has  read  DuBois'  "Souls 
of  Black  Folk,"  and  the  problem  of  peonage  has 
probably  come  before  him  in  academic  fashion.  To- 


From  the  Cantonments  157 

day  he  knows  the  facts.  So  he  knows  his  problem 
and  his  brother  officers  know  it  as  they  could  not 
have  known  it  otherwise.  And  what  are  a  few 
frozen  ears,  noses,  or  fingers  to  these  men  who  never 
left  the  pine  barrens  or  the  Black  Belt  or  the  red 
clay  hills,  as  they  find  themselves  no  longer  ex 
ploited.  What  geographical  ideas  must  these  be 
absorbing,  as  they  find  themselves  in  the  North ;  and 
what  Sociological  and  Economic  ideas  are  they  get 
ting  as  they  find  themselves  in  great  groups  working 
together  under  officers  of  their  own  race !  And  what 
ethical  notions  must  drift  into  their  minds  as  they 
find  these  officers  respected  by  their  fellow  officers 
of  the  white  race,  and  they  themselves  free  to  come 
and  go  without  being  told  where  to  go  or  not  to 
go,  but  free! 

Perhaps  the  finest  thing  that  comes  to  our  stu 
dent  officers,  is  their  meeting  as  they  do,  and  as  they 
will  more  and  more  meet  with  men  who  have  done 
things,  men  of  affairs.  After  an  interview  with  his 
general,  a  lieutenant  sums  up  his  impression  in  the 
simple  phrase,  "General  —  -  is  a  strong  man." 
The  following  incident  illustrates  the  attitude  of  the 
commanding  officers  toward  their  subordinates, 
whether  white  or  colored.  A  general  was  travelling 
with  a  body  of  his  officers  for  several  hours  across 
country.  The  party  was  returning  from  a  match 
game  of  football  with  the  men  of  another  canton 
ment.  Among  the  party  were  two  Negro  lieuten- 


158  Chums  and  Brothers 

ants.  During  the  journey  the  general  went  into  the 
dining-car  and  sent  his  orderly  back  to  invite  all 
the  officers  to  dine  with  him.  Perhaps  it  was  nat 
ural  that  the  two  colored  officers  did  not  go  with 
the  others.  Their  absence  was  noted  by  the  gen 
eral,  who  sent  his  orderly  again  to  demand  their 
presence  and  attendance  and  they  had  the  satisfac 
tion,  not  only  of  being  entertained  with  him  at  din 
ner,  but  of  having  an  interesting  conversation  with 
him  afterwards. 

The  larger  number  of  Negro  commissioned  officers 
are  either  first  or  second  lieutenants.  So  far  as  I 
know,  few  became  captains  who  had  not  been  in  the 
regular  army  previous  to  their  assignment  to  the 
training  camp  at  Fort  Des  Moines,  where  they 
were  the  training  officers  under  the  white  officers  of 
the  camp.  Two  of  these  captains  were  ex-Atlanta 
University  students  and  one  of  the  new  captains  is 
an  alumnus  of  the  school.  He  writes: 

I  took  charge  of  my  company  November  4,  and 
I  think  I  may  pardonably  say  I  have  a  fine  set  of 
young  men  among  whom  a  fine  spirit  exists.  The 
work  is  strenuous  and  taxing,  but  I  enjoy  it  just 
the  same. 

In  the  same  letter  writing  upon  the  larger  issues, 
he  says: 

Events  now  transpiring  in  this  great  world  debacle 
confirm  my  conviction  more  and  more  that  the  prin- 


From  the  Cantonments  159 

ciples  of  Atlanta  University,  the  principles  for 
which  she  has  stood  so  unflinchingly  for  more  than 
a  generation,  despite  unfriendly  criticism,  misun 
derstanding  on  the  part  of  those  without  her  faith  in 
humanity,  are  right  and  eternal  and  must  prevail. 
The  world  must  come  to  our  way  of  thinking  to  in 
sure  enduring  peace  among  men. 

The  following  has  a  touch  of  Christmas  cheer: 

This  is  Christmas  morning,  about  11  o'clock.  I 
have  finished  the  dining-room  and  recreation  room 
decorations  for  the  men's  Christmas  dinner.  I  wish 
so  much  that  you  could  see  it ;  then  you  could  real 
ize  just  what  the  officers  are  doing  to  make  every 
thing  as  pleasant  as  possible  for  the  men.  They 
have  everything  they  want  for  dinner,  turkey,  candy, 
nuts,  fruits,  pies  of  every  kind,  cranberries,  celery, 
lettuce,  and  as  much  of  it  as  they  can  eat.  The  let 
ter  closes  thus :  "I  thank  you  for  your  papers  and 
cards,  but  really  I  have  not  had  the  time  to  do  all 
the  work  assigned  to  me,  much  less  to  write  to  any 
one.  And  the  work  had  to  come  first." 

January,  1918. 


FROM  THE  CANTONMENTS 


ii 


SOME  one  once  remarked,  "The  man  I  do  not 
like  is  the  man  that  I  do  not  know."  And  the 
remark  has  a  deeper  signification  than  appears  at 
first.  I  have  said  elsewhere  that  if  the  southern  no 
tion  of  the  Negro  was  to  persist,  that  it  was  a  mis 
take  to  send  the  colored  soldiers  in  training  into  the 
northern  cantonments.  There  they  would  meet  the 
Anglo-Saxon  soldier  on  terms  of  fair  equality,  and 
a  mutual  liking  would  ensue.  And  this  seems  to  be 
borne  out  by  all  the  facts  that  come  to  us  from  let 
ters  and  from  visits  from  our  own  training-lieuten 
ants  as  they  return  to  us  on  leaves  of  absence.  The 
following  incident  illustrates  how  camp  friendships 
cut  across  certain  lines  of  demarkation.  A  group  of 
soldiers,  white  and  colored,  were  out  together  fra 
ternizing  as  soldiers  will ;  and  the  group  went  to  a 
restaurant  for  a  lunch.  This  occurred  in  Virginia. 
The  proprietor  expressed  his  willingness  to  serve 
the  white  men  but  not  the  colored.  To  this  the 
white  soldiers  made  no  demur,  but  ordered  viands 
for  the  entire  group,  and  took  them  with  necessary 

160 


From  the  Cantonments  161 

dishes  upon  the  sidewalk  where  all  sat  down  and 
ate  as  though  sidewalks  were  convenient  dining 
tables.  And  the  passer-by  looked  on  with  differing 
emotions.  To  some  of  them  it  was  a  new  illustra 
tion  of  the  democratic  spirit. 

So  far  as  personal  information  comes  from  the 
various  northern  cantonments  it  is  of  most  pleas 
ant  relations  among  the  representatives  of  the  two 
races.  An  interesting  phase  of  this  is  shown  in  the 
course  of  study  which  our  officers-in-training  enter 
with  their  white  confreres.  To  many  of  them,  the 
meeting  in  mixed  classes  was  a  new  experience.  Per 
haps  I  have  said  this  before,  but  if  so  it  is  worth 
repeating;  that  I  am  always  glad  when  one  of  our 
college  men  matriculates  in  a  northern  university. 
If  one  finds  that  Anglo-Saxon  gray  matter  is  finer 
than  African  "gray  matter,"  accept  the  fact,  for 
facts  are  what  we  wish.  But  if  the  result  shows,  as 
I  think  it  will,  that  "gray  matter"  is  "gray  matter" 
despite  the  presence  or  absence  of  a  little  tropical 
blood,  the  revelation  will  not  hurt  but  help  both 
parties  to  the  intellectual  contest.  Meantime,  the 
meeting  in  mixed  classes  has  opened  upon  new  op 
portunities  for  acquaintance  and  friendship  and 
some  exchange  of  courtesies.  The  following  is  a 
case  in  point.  Two  men,  lieutenants,  representing 
each  his  own  race,  were  out  upon  a  reconnaissance 
walk  in  connection  with  a  course  of  study.  They 
came  to  a  stream  too  deep  for  the  colored  officer  to 


Chums  and  Brothers 

wade  across  in  his  low  boots,  but  not  too  deep  for 
the  white  officer  who  chanced  to  have  on  his  long- 
legged  boots.  The  white  man  sensed  the  situation, 
and  said,  "You  can  not  cross  without  getting  wet. 
Let  me  carry  you  across."  No  sooner  said  than 
done;  the  colored  officer  sprang  upon  the  back  of 
the  white  officer  and  in  less  time  than  it  takes  to 
tell  it  the  act  of  courtesy  was  carried  out  and  both 
men  dry  and  comfortable  were  upon  the  opposite 
bank  pursuing  the  purpose  of  their  walk. 

Two  illustrations  of  the  contest  of  "gray  matter" 
with  "gray  matter"  have  come  to  me  recently,  in 
both  of  which  the  colored  officer  led  the  class.  The 
one  was  in  a  class  studying  the  rapid-firing  gun, 
about  which  the  leading  colored  officer  rather  mod 
estly  claimed  that  his  leading  was  rather  a  matter 
of  luck,  but  which  I  interpret  as  rather  a  matter 
of  "nerve."  The  other  was  a  distinctly  scholastic 
test,  being  a  course  upon  field  fortification,  in 
which  mathematics  played  no  small  part.  In  a  class 
of  thirty,  there  were  four  colored  officers,  and  one 
of  these  led  the  whole  class.  He  with  a  similar  mod 
esty  ascribes  his  success  to  one  of  his  college  teach 
ers  ;  but  my  own  idea  is,  that  his  success  is  due  to 
a  student  attitude  toward  his  work  while  in  school. 
To  him  a  teacher's  assignment  was  always  a  duty 
to  be  performed  and  not  a  task  to  be  avoided. 

Not  all  the  items  are  from  the  northern  canton- 


From  the  Cantonments  163 

ments.  One  gets  hints  of  pleasant  relations  exist 
ing  in  the  southern  camps.  Perhaps  this  is  as  sig 
nificant  as  anything  that  has  come  to  me.  A  friend 
of  mine  was  riding  across  Alabama  and  Mississippi, 
and  behind  him  sat  two  men,  one  a  soldier  who  had 
been  on  a  furlough  and  who  was  returning  to  camp. 
He  said  to  his  seat-mate,  that  he  had  gone  into  the 
war  with  a  good  deal  of  unwillingness,  but  that  he 
had  got  so  much  good  out  of  the  camp  and  so  much 
real  enjoyment  that  he  was  glad  to  get  back.  "And 

what  about  the  * '?"  asked  the  other.     "Do  they 

make  good  soldiers?"  His  friend  said  in  reply,  "I 
have  cut  that  word  out  of  my  vocabulary.  I  have 
got  acquainted  with  the  colored  men  in  the  camp,  and 
I  have  learned  to  like  them  and  to  know  them,  and 
they  are  making  good  in  camp,  and  to  me  they  are 
colored  soldiers."  I  do  not  think  this  incident 
ushers  in  the  millennium,  but  it  does  illustrate  that 
when  men  can  get  together  in  circumstances  where 
the  lines  of  social  cleavage  are  forgotten,  that  a 
certain  "camaraderie"  is  bound  to  develop.  I  would 
not  prolong  the  war  one  day;  nay,  one  hour;  no, 
not  a  moment;  but  I  have  the  faith  to  believe  that 
the  war  will  not  end  until  the  spirit  of  comradeship 
which  the  cantonments  illustrate  shall  become  gen 
eral  outside  the  cantonments.  For  after  all — 

"The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp. 
The  man's  the  gold  for  a'  that." 


Chums  and  Brothers 

I  find  the  following  in  a  religious  paper.  It  is 
from  a  letter  from  a  soldier  in  camp,  and  bears  the 
caption,  "Express  Your  Love."  The  boy  writes,  "Do 
I  ever  get  tired  of  being  told  you  love  me?  Never 
stop  writing  it.  The  fellow  for  whom  I  have  the  most 
pity  in  the  army  is  the  one  who  has  no  one  to  love 
him  or  writes  to  tell  him  so.  You  know  in  the  army, 
the  immorality  is  due  either  to  the  'nobody-cares' 
attitude  or  'nobody-will-find-out'  attitude.  The  fel 
low  who  gets  a  bit  of  both  of  these  can  easily  go 
wrong  if  he  chooses." 

In  larger  lines  a  chaplain  writes  that  he  prefers 
the  camp  to  the  country,  for  "here  one  finds  the 
stimulus  of  struggle  with  nature  plus  the  fellowship 
of  large  bodies  of  able,  good  men  which  even  the  best 
small  town  can  furnish  but  periodically."  He  pre 
fers  it  to  the  city,  because  "the  electric  lights,  the 
autos,  the  movies,  the  theaters  are  there,  but  you 
can  walk  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  a  vast  city 
of  40,000  without  seeing  a  single  saloon,  or  of  the 
advertising  of  the  sex-impulse  for  commercial  pur 
poses."  And  he  prefers  it  to  the  college  campus, 
"because  the  equivalents  of  fraternity  and  chum  and 
athletics  and  glee  club  and  college  journal  and 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  are  there,  but  each  in  its  proper  rela 
tion  to  the  main  show,  but  electives  and  snap-courses 
have  entirely  disappeared." 

Said  one  lieutenant  to  me,  "We  handle  the  in 
struments  of  death  so  frequently  and  so  familiarly 


From  the  Cantonments  165 

that  we  become  accustomed  to  them  and  the  thought 
of  death  loses  its  fears."  This  calls  up  a  ques 
tion  asked  upon  the  cantonment,  "What  are  our 
boys  thinking  about?  It  is  hollow  mockery  to  talk 
of  a  ministry  of  merely  social  service  to  a  clear- 
eyed  boy  who  looks  you  squarely  in  the  face  and 
asks  you  if  death  ends  all  and  how  you  know  it 
doesn't.  I  thank  God  that  my  boys  are  laying  hold 
upon  the  only  real  argument  for  immortality — the 
practice  by  the  will  of  the  principle  that  he  that 
loseth  his  life  shall  find  it.  The  only  way  to  know 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  death  is  to  dare  to 
face  it  as  Jesus  did  for  a  great  cause  and  find  out." 

There  is  a  side  of  the  war  which  perhaps  we  have 
not  said  much  about  or  thought  much  about  which 
came  to  me  in  a  personal  letter  from  a  friend  in  the 
north.  Two  of  his  sons  are  in  the  service  and  the 
third  is  getting  ready.  He  writes,  "Their  lives  are 
completely  broken  up.  If  they  return  they  will  have 
no  jobs  and  no  money.  The  places  they  might  have 
filled  will  be  held  by  somebody  else,  and  besides, 
the  life  in  the  army  establishes  the  habit  of  living 
for  the  day  only,  without  plan  for  the  future;  you 
can  not  plan;  when  orders  come  you  simply  obey 
them;  that's  all.  You  can  not  think  of  buying  a 
home  or  of  establishing  a  family  and  a  permanent 
way  of  life." 

And  right  here  is  the  ultimate  sacrifice  which  our 


166  Chums  and  Brothers 

soldier  boys  accept.  We  are  sending  them  out  to 
be  citizen  soldiers,  fighting  to  make  war  unneces 
sary;  they  are  not  to  be  and  become  professional 
soldiers,  but  when  they  come  back  what  is  there  for 
them,  but  to  remain  so  far  as  they  can  in  the  serv 
ice?  And  this  suggests  that  new  world  into  which 
we  are  entering,  a  world  of  military  preparedness, 
and  universal  military  service  so  different  from  our 
traditions  and  our  history.  Surely 

"The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new, 
And  God  fulfills  Himself  in  many  ways, 
Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world." 


AN  OPEN  LETTER 

\ 
(Editorial  Introductory  Note) 

THE  columns  of  The  Atlanta  Constitution  have 
of  late  years  shown  marked  interest  in  the 
progress  of  our  people.  In  fact,  it  is  today  so  dif 
ferent  from  that  of  two  decades  ago  that  it  has 
called  forth  encouraging  comment  from  our  people 
all  over  the  country.  The  day  is  still  fresh  in  the 
memory  of  many  of  us  when  we  expected  no  words 
of  encouragement  or  defense,  all  then  was  gall  and 
bitterness.  We  now  look  upon  the  Constitution  as 
the  one  paper  among  us  that  believes  in  fair  play. 
The  following  letter  from  the  pen  of  Prof.  E.  H. 
Webster  was  intended  for  its  columns  because  there 
are  many  things  in  it  that  our  white  neighbors  and 
friends  elsewhere  ought  to  know.  We  do  not  be 
lieve  it  any  ulterior  motive  other  than  omission  on 
the  part  of  the  editor  of  the  Constitution  that  it  did 
not  appear  in  its  columns. 

ATLANTA,  GA.,  Nov.  17,  1917. 
Editor  The  Atlanta  Constitution, 
Dear  Sir: 

The  friends  of  the  colored  people,  and  especially 
the  teachers  of  their  children,  are  always  grateful 
for  any  cordial  word  that  appears  in  the  columns  of 

167 


168  Chums  and  Brothers 

the  Constitution.  And  so  we  appreciate  the  para 
graph  in  a  recent  issue,  speaking  of  the  colored 
men  of  Atlanta  who  had  earned  commissions  in  the 
training  camp  at  Fort  Des  Moines,  Iowa.  These 
commissions  were  given  Oct.  15,  1917,  and  the  offi 
cers  were  given  two  weeks'  furlough  before  report 
ing  to  their  different  cantonments.  The  list  as  you 
presented  it  was  not  quite  correct.  You  gave  the 
names  of  nineteen.  Twenty-one  of  the  colored  youth 
of  Atlanta  received  commissions,  either  as  First 
Lieutenants  or  as  Second  Lieutenants.  It  will  be 
a  satisfaction  to  your  readers  to  know  that  one- 
half  of  all  the  commissions  granted  to  colored 
Georgians  went  to  Atlanta ;  and  it  is  an  item  of  in 
terest  to  us,  that  on  a  different  alignment,  one-half 
of  the  commissions  were  given  to  men  who  had  been 
or  who  were  at  the  time  students  of  Atlanta  Uni 
versity. 

For  two  weeks  these  officers  clad  in  khaki  were 
seen  about  the  streets  of  Atlanta.  I  think  had  the 
option  been  left  with  them  they  would  have  pre 
ferred  civilian  attire.  But  the  military  rules  are 
strict  at  this  point  during  war  time.  The  recogni 
tion  accorded  these  young  officers  by  their  fellow 
officers  was,  to  say  the  least,  curious.  Some  of  the 
white  soldiers  recognized  the  uniform  with  the  ap 
propriate  salute,  and  that  ended  it.  A  few  did  the 
same  as  though  it  were  a  joke  and  laughed  as  they 
did  it.  Most  of  the  white  soldiers  failed  to  see  their 


An  Open  Letter  169 

colored  comrades  in  arms  and  passed  them  without 
looking  at  them. 

The  student  camp  for  the  training  of  colored  of 
ficers  originated  in  a  student  movement  that  had  its 
inception  at  Howard  University,  Washington,  D.  C., 
and  which  was  warmly  seconded  by  the  students  of 
the  colored  colleges  in  Atlanta.  The  United  States 
had  maintained  for  two  years  and  was  proposing 
to  maintain  summer  student  training  camps,  whose 
graduates  were  to  receive  officers'  commissions.  To 
these  camps,  the  colored  college  students  were  de 
barred.  They  never  understood  why  they  were  de 
barred,  but  they  were.  A  movement  to  establish 
a  private  camp  under  the  sanction  of  a  govern 
ment  was  well  under  way  when  President  Wilson 
declared  that  a  state  of  war  existed  between  this 
country  and  Germany,  and  that  movement  was 
quashed.  Again  denied  entrance  into  the  national 
camps,  this  student  movement  was  inaugurated,  and 
a  hundred  of  the  college  men  of  the  Atlanta  schools 
signed  the  petition,  and  when  granted,  the  full  stu 
dent  quota  allowed  the  schools  was  filled  by  volun 
teers  who  had  signed  the  petition.  And  double  the 
number  would  have  gone  to  camp  had  the  number 
allowed  been  larger. 

The  training  camp  at  Fort  Des  Moines  was  unique 
among  all  the  training  camps.  Of  the  twelve  hun 
dred  colored  men  in  camp,  40  per  cent  were  college 
students,  40  per  cent  were  professional  men,  10  per 


170  Chums  and  Brothers 

cent  were  colored  business  men,  and  the  remaining 
10  per  cent  were  taken  from  the  regular  army. 
These  latter  made  the  first  officers  of  the  training 
body,  and  were  detailed  from  their  regiments  for 
that  purpose. 

These  men  were  supposed  to  take  a  year's  regu 
lar  training  in  the  three  months.  In  all  that  time, 
there  was  not  a  single  brawl  in  the  camp.  The 
guard  house  was  significant  as  having  no  use.  The 
city  of  Des  Moines,  that  demurred  at  the  bringing 
of  twelve  hundred  negro  troops  into  their  midst, 
regretted  when  the  time  came  that  the  officers  left. 
In  public  and  in  private,  the  officers  in  training  car 
ried  themselves  in  a  way  to  win  admiration  and  re 
spect. 

The  white  officers  in  camp  were  highly  pleased 
with  the  quality  of  the  men  and  the  quality  of  their 
work.  A  great  disappointment  came  to  the  men 
at  the  close  of  the  third  month  when  the  war  de 
partment  issued  orders  that  the  men  should  remain 
in  training  a  fourth  month.  Permission  was,  how 
ever,  given  any  who  wished  to  withdraw  to  do  so  as 
"honorably  discharged."  A  number  took  advantage 
of  this  opportunity.  But  to  the  credit  of  your 
Georgia  company,  not  one  took  advantage  of  the 
offer.  They  remained  to  a  man. 

The  concluding  phrase  of  the  Constitution's  para 
graph  upon  these  commissioned  men  read  that  "all 
have  been  ordered  to  report  after  their  furloughs  to 


An  Open  Letter  171 

northern  camps."  It  seems  to  the  writer  peculiarly 
unfortunate  that  this  had  to  be  so.  One  under 
stands,  perhaps,  that  it  had  to  be  so,  while  we  wished 
that  it  could  have  been  otherwise.  Sixty  years  and 
more  ago,  an  Alabama  statesman  exclaimed,  "The 
world  is  against  the  South  in  its  understanding  of 
the  negro.  It  is  our  duty  to  educate  the  world." 
As  that  attitude  of  mind  has  passed,  the  present  at 
titude  of  mind  of  the  South  toward  the  negro  will 
pass.  And  fifty  years  hence,  when  the  world  shall 
have  become  safe  for  democracy  and  democracy  safe 
for  the  world,  the  South  will  look  back  in  surprise 
that  at  this  critical  juncture,  all  these  young  col 
ored  officers  had  to  be  assigned  to  northern  camps. 
And  yet  the  Secretary  of  War  states  that  he  is  not 
entering  this  war  to  solve  a  southern  social  question, 
but  to  whip  the  Germans.  And  with  that  in  mind, 
it  was  well  to  avoid  any  friction  in  the  matter. 

The  best  comment  that  the  writer  has  seen  upon 
the  Houston  riot  was  in  a  northern  religious  jour 
nal.  Without  reducing  the  condemnation  of  the 
riot  one  iota,  the  editor  frankly  recognizes  that  the 
riot  began  in  white  arrogance  and  white  usurpa 
tion  and  said,  "The  South  must  learn  to  accept  the 
plain  results  of  the  Civil  War,  and  must  learn  to 
respect  the  uniform  of  the  soldier,  whoever  wears 
it." 

And  yet,  if  it  must  be  so,  as  a  teacher  of  these 
young  men,  and  their  friend,  I  cannot  but  be  glad 


Chwms  and  Brothers 

that  they  are  to  get  their  entrance  into  real  army 
life  in  the  freer  atmosphere  of  the  north,  where  the 
traditions  are  different,  and  where  they  will  receive 
the  treatment  their  commissions  warrant  without  let 
or  hindrance.  But  I  am  wondering  how  many  of 
these  colored  officers  who  survive  Flanders  or  France 
will  be  willing  to  return  to  the  South  after  the  war, 
if  they  must  return  to  conditions  so  different  from 
what  they  are  meeting  now  in  the  North.  They  are 
the  very  flower  of  their  race,  just  the  young  men 
to  be  held  to  the  South  for  the  upbuilding  of  their 
people,  but  weaned  from  the  South  by  the  very  free 
dom  which  the  North  grants  and  which  the  South 
denies  them. 

Being  a  negro  is  no  crime,  but  the  Southern  atti 
tude  too  often  makes  it  appear  such.  You  are  not 
aware,  for  you  are  protected  from  it,  how  often 
the  fact  that  one  is  a  negro  is  rubbed  into  the  man 
of  color  in  the  South.  We  object  to  the  German 
Emperor  giving  to  every  submarine  commander  the 
right  to  declare  war  upon  the  United  States,  but  the 
Southern  States  give  every  small  official  the  right  to 
declare  war  upon  the  negro.  The  South  is  steadily 
losing  its  best  colored  youth,  as  these  get  in  touch 
with  the  North  and  remain  there. 

One  phase  of  the  colored  officer  situation  comes 
to  me  with  tremendous  force.  It  is  the  reports  that 
come  of  the  ignorance  and  illiteracy  of  the  negro 
conscript  soldiers.  The  fact  comes  to  me  from  every 


An  Open  Letter  173 

camp  where  there  are  colored  recruits,  whether 
North  or  South.  They  can  not,  in  too  many  cases, 
even  write  their  own  names ;  few  have  had  the  equiva 
lent  of  four  grammar  grades  and  very  few,  indeed, 
have  been  through  a  grammar  school.  Many  do 
know  why  they  are  in  camp  and  think  of  it  as  a 
chain-gang.  Some  of  the  stories  are  humorous,  but 
most  are  pitiful.  These  recruits  are  the  product 
of  the  Southern  schools  of  the  past  fifty  years.  And 
they  are  to  meet  in  Europe  the  best  trained  soldiers 
of  the  Old  World.  These  young  officers  are  optimis 
tic  among  conditions  that  would  seem  to  be  decid 
edly  pessimistic.  And  I  admire  their  courage, 
though  I  tremble  for  the  product. 

The  language  of  the  Supreme  Court  decision  in 
the  matter  of  segregation  is  a  curious  commentary 
upon  this  point.  "We  have  permitted,"  the  Court 
says,  "segregation  in  schools  and  public  conveyances 
on  the  principle  that  the  advantages  of  the  one  and 
the  accommodations  of  the  other  should  be  equal." 
But  the  court  declines  to  go  further,  and  ^ne  won 
ders  if  it  is  not  because  the  court  recognizes,  that 
if  the  principle  of  segregation  is  further  admitted, 
the  gross  inequalities  that  have  followed  will  con 
tinue  to  follow. 

The  one  thing  which  we  ought  to  hope  shall  come 
out  of  the  war  is  a  real  renaissance  of  the  democratic 
idea.  For  this,  this  country  is  fighting.  Without 
expanding  that  thought  at  all,  it  seems  to  the  writer 


174  Chttms  <md  Brothers 

that  in  the  new  world  that  is  to  come,  we  shall  put 
our  valuation  less  upon  property  and  more  upon 
men;  and  this  nation  and  every  nation  will  see  to 
it  that  every  man  has  a  fair  chance  to  the  largest 
development  of  his  possibilities,  that  we  must  do  this 
for  our  own  safety.  The  schools  of  the  future  will 
be  very  different  from  the  schools  of  the  past;  but 
they  will  open  themselves  to  all  youth  irrespective 
of  race,  color  or  previous  condition.  The  state  will 
demand  that  each  achieve  the  utmost  possible,  and 
put  no  barriers  in  the  way. 


A  NEW  YEAR'S  MESSAGE— 1918 

"God  bless  you!"     So  I  breathe  a  charm 
Lest  grief's  dark  night  oppress  you. 
For  how  can  sorrow  bring  you  harm 
If  'tis  His  will  to  bless  you? 

And  so,  not  "all  your  days  be  fair 
And  shadows  touch  thee  never"; 
But  this  alone — "God  bless  you,  dear," 
And  thou  art  safe  forever. 

THERE  is  a  revival  hymn  whose  words  will  not 
come  to  command  but  whose  thought  is  "Count 
your  many  blessings."  And  I  recall  the  pastor  of 
my  youth  declaring  that  if  we  would  thank  God  for 
three  things  given  every  time  we  pray  for  one  thing 
that  our  prayers  would  take  on  a  different  charac 
ter.  Perhaps  it  will  be  well  for  us  at  this  time  to 
think  through  the  items  for  gratitude  in  the  im 
mediate  past  as  we  face  the  immediate  future. 

Three  years  ago  last  August  the  writer  came 
from  New  York  to  Charleston  by  boat,  leaving  the 
great  metropolis  on  the  day  that  the  war  was  be 
gun.  And  during  the  hours  of  that  journey,  the 
baseball  news  from  the  shore  vied  with  war  news 
from  Europe  for  the  important  position  on  the  little 
sheet  published  each  day  as  the  wireless  sent  its  mes- 

175 


176  Chums  and  Brothers 

sages  to  us  at  sea.  Among  the  first  items  that 
caught  my  attention  later  in  the  month  was  the 
offer  from  a  strong  weekly  journal  for  a  subscrip 
tion  until  the  end  of  the  war  for  one  dollar.  I  have 
often  wondered  if  that  offer  was  ever  withdrawn. 
In  the  light  of  events  that  have  taken  place  the 
offer  seems  a  little  foolish.  But  it  does  remind  us, 
how  little  the  world  at  that  time  appreciated  the 
magnitude  of  the  problem  before  it.  Little  recked 
Kaiser,  and  little  recked  we,  that  with  the  crossing 
of  the  Belgian  frontier  and  the  invasion  of  north 
ern  France  was  set  in  motion  a  train  of  circum 
stances  which  would  lead  in  this  country  to  what 
some  of  us  in  our  wisdom  or  lack  of  wisdom,  call 
"The  Second  Emancipation  of  the  Negro." 

But  it  is  the  steps  of  this  emancipation  which  it 
is  worthy  to  think  through  at  this  time  when  a  new 
year  is  opening  with  its  yet  unspoiled  page. 

Looking  out  upon  a  situation  in  his  time  com 
parable  perhaps  to  him  as  the  present  is  to  us,  the 
Psalmist  exclaims  "God  is  not  in  all  their  thoughts." 
And  ofttimes  it  seems  to  the  onlooker  as  though  the 
thought  of  the  Hebrew  writer  was  matched  in  our 
day.  But  no  one  can  read  of  the  events  in  this 
country  taking  place  in  the  years  1861-1865,  but 
sees  if  he  is  thoughtful,  that  until  amid  the  clash  of 
arms  a  definite  goal  was  pointed  out  by  the  march 
of  events  which  was  as  distinctly  the  divine  purpose 
in  the  war,  as  though  God  said  to  a  new  Moses,  to 


A   New  Year's  Message — 1918  177 

tell  a  modern  Pharaoh,  "Let  my  people  go."  And  so 
one  is  brought  to  the  conclusion  that  behind  the 
present  conflict  there  runs  a  purpose  of  God,  and 
that  the  war  will  not  cease  until  the  world  recog 
nizes  that  purpose  and  accepts  it. 

I  suspect  that  a  tabulation  of  items  in  this  sec 
ond  Emancipation  will  not  bring  out  any  new  ma 
terial,  but  it  may  serve  to  call  our  attention  to  cer 
tain  marked  events  which  may  let  us  see  that  the 
"charm"  in  the  first  line  of  the  little  poem  above, 
is  operating. 

The  war  in  Europe  created  a  labor-shortage  in 
the  north.  This  awakened  a  competition  for  Negro 
labor.  This  has  led  to  that  exodus  of  colored  labor 
ers  from  the  south  to  the  north  which  has  given  the 
new  opportunity  to  thousands  never  before  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  the  county  in  which  they  were 
born;  it  has  brought  them  in  contact  with  new  men 
and  new  ideas  and  new  standards  of  living.  More 
than  this,  it  has  shown  the  south  the  true  value  of 
its  labor,  and  for  its  laborers  which  must  act  toward 
righting  conditions  which  ought  to  have  been  righted 
years  ago.  For  us  at  least  the  old  law  of  competi 
tion  is  working  well. 

The  second  item  is  wrapped  in  the  first.  If  the 
south  after  the  war  is  to  be  as  it  was  before  the  war, 
then  the  recruiting  of  Negro  troops  was  a  mistake. 
And  the  second  mistake  was  in  sending  them  north 
to  be  trained. 


178  Chums  and,  Brothers 

And  the  third  item  grows  naturally  out  of  the 
second.  Some  of  us  could  have  told  the  fact,  but 
it  is  now  coming  out  that  colored  recruits,  too  many 
of  them,  do  not  know  what  schooling  means.  And  the 
country  is  awaking  to  the  fact  through  the  illiter 
acy  of  the  men  from  the  south.  Said  one  woman 
after  a  visit  to  a  cantonment,  "I  did  not  believe  it 
possible  for  so  much  ignorance  to  be  gathered  to 
gether."  She  has  not  known  her  problem.  It  was 
my  fortune  to  be  registrar  in  the  registration  of 
June  5th.  And  the  men  who  could  not  sign  their 
names  made  a  sad  showing.*  The  south  has  neg 
lected  its  colored  citizens.  And  the  north  is  now 
taking  notice.  And  after  the  war  there  will  be  a 
new  school  law.  The  country  knows  the  facts. 
Never  again  will  it  permit  such  shameful  neglect. 
And  it  took  a  war  to  acquaint  the  country. 

Since  April  2,  of  the  year  1917,  four  constructive 
movements  have  taken  place  bearing  upon  the  Ne 
gro.  In  historic  order  these  are:  the  colored  col 
lege  student  movement  which  resulted  in  the  colored 
officers'  training  camp  at  Fort  Des  Moines.  This 
movement  demonstrates  the  right  of  the  Negro  col 
lege  to  exist,  a  right  sometimes  denied.  Second  in 
order  was  the  appointment  of  six  hundred  twenty- 
four  of  these  cadets  to  the  officers'  reserve  corps, 
and  their  assignment  as  training  officers  among  the 
cantonments  of  the  north.  All  this  the  writer  has 
dwelt  upon  in  other  connections  and  will  not  add 


A  New  Years  Message — 1918  179 

at  this  time.  Next  in  order,  and  growing  out  of 
the  Negro  officers  and  the  Negro  recruits,  was  the 
appointment  of  Mr.  Emmett  J.  Scott  to  a  position 
as  assistant  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  a  position 
almost  within  the  President's  cabinet,  as  Mr.  Scott 
is  thus  numbered  among  the  President's  advisers. 
Lastly,  come  the  Supreme  Court  Decision  in  the 
Louisville  segregation  case.  Segregation  as  prin 
ciple  leading  toward  the  enforced  crowding  of  peo 
ple  in  special  sections  seems  to  have  met  its  death 
blow. 

Other  items  of  joyous  import  for  the  Negro  might 
be  added  to  these.  I  quote  from  a  letter  recently 
received  from  a  student-friend:  "Just  as  I  begin  to 
feel  patriotic  and  clamoring  to  do  my  bit,  along 
comes  something  which  makes  me  feel  as  no  citizen 
wishes  to  feel  toward  his  country.  Yet  I  am  an 
American  and  am  willing  and  wish  to  serve  my  coun 
try  at  any  price  where  I  can  do  the  most  good." 

So  the  facts  gathered  in  this  message  for  the  New 
Year  have  sprung  out  of  war  conditions.  But  they 
will  remain  after  the  war  is  over,  and  they  are  the 
earnest  of  other  steps  of  progress  yet  to  be  made. 
Surely,  we  may  read  the  handwriting  upon  the  wall — 
it  is  hopeful  and  we  may  take  courage. 


FROM  THE  CANTONMENTS 

ni 

THE  first  step  in  good  composition,"  said  our 
English  professor,  "is  the  gathering  of  the  ma 
terial."  The  letters  received  from  our  men  in  the 
cantonments  illustrate  that  this  first  step  is  being 
taken  by  them.  Our  young  men  are  having  experi 
ences  full  of  interest  and  which  they  are  describing 
graphically.  These  letters  seem  to  me  too  costly  to 
keep  to  myself  and  unless  the  letter  has  a  too  per 
sonal  note  I  find  myself  sharing  them  with  their 
friends  and  with  my  friends.  And  this  is  not  alto 
gether  my  own  habit,  for  one  of  them  writes,  "Your 
letter  has  been  read  by  each  of  the  school  comrades 
with  me  in  camp."  A  clipping  from  a  northern 
paper  contains  the  rumor  that  the  9£d  division, 
"our"  division,  is  now  undergoing  intensive  training 
preparatory  for  early  removal  to  the  western  front ; 
and  we  may  be  sure  that  the  letters  that  we  shall  be 
receiving  from  "somewhere  in  France,"  will  be  drawn 
out  of  the  new  and  interesting  material  that  the  bat 
tle-scarred  front  offers.  And  this  calls  up  a  sug 
gestion  made  by  the  government,  as  to  the  quality 
of  our  own  letters  to  our  boys  in  cantonment  or  at 

180 


From  the  Cantonments  181 

the  front.  "Write  to  the  soldiers,"  we  are  told, 
"but  write  cheerful  letters."  Let  the  soldier  feel 
"that  his  family  and  his  friends  stand  behind  him  in 
the  great  enterprise  that  he  has  undertaken." 

In  the  same  line  I  quote  from  a  letter  written 
from  the  front  and  recently  published.  "The  evil 
temptations  that  surround  a  camp  can  best  be  met 
by  the  soldier  who  feels  himself  in  close  touch  with  the 
standards  of  his  bringing  up,  and  correspondents 
will  do  well  to  keep  the  tone  of  their  letters  on  a 
plane  that  will  invigorate  the  morale  of  their  boys 
in  France.  .  .  .  Boys  who  do  not  hear  often  from 
home  or  who  get  depressing  and  commonplace  let 
ters  are  much  more  likely  to  slip  or  fall  than  those 
whose  families  supply  them  with  constant  moral  and 
mental  refreshment."  And  the  writer  continues, 
"This  advice  applies  not  only  to  parents  and  wives 
but  to  girl  friends  who  should  remember  that  as  our 
soldiers  come  closer  to  the  stern  realities  of  life, 
they  mature  quickly  and  judge  things  more  and 
more  by  their  intrinsic  value.  When  they  finally 
come  home  they  will  not  be  satisfied  with  the  trivi 
alities  that  may  have  come  to  them  before  the  war. 
They  will  be  disappointed  if  they  do  not  find  a  seri 
ous  mental  attitude  to  correspond  with  their  own 
maturity  of  thought." 

The  items  that  come  to  mind  at  this  time  gather 
around  one  cantonment,  that  of  Camp  Sherman, 
Ohio.  Here  the  United  States  has  established  a  Sig- 


182  Chums  and  Brothers 

nal  Service  Battalion,  and  in  this  battalion  a  goodly 
number  of  our  own  youths  have  been  placed.  A 
good  deal  that  is  pleasant  has  been  said  about  Camp 
Sherman.  One  young  man  writes,  "Camp  Sherman 
has  been  called  the  ideal  camp  of  America.  I  rise 
to  confirm  this  statement.  Y.  M.  C.  A.  number  75 
has  colored  secretaries  and  is  usually  considered  a 
Colored  Y.  M.  C.  A. ;  but  any  soldier  can  go  to  any 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  sit  and  read  or  write  or  attend  any 
lecture  he  pleases  and  not  a  word  of  contempt  is 
uttered,  nor  is  any  one  'jim-crowed.'  The  same 
freedom  holds  in  theaters,  in  ice-cream  parlors,  and 
everywhere.  One  feels  like  an  American." 

The  largeness  of  the  military  life  from  the  busi 
ness  side  makes  a  strong  appeal  to  our  youth  whose 
business  experiences  have  necessarily  been  limited. 
"It  is  marvelous,"  writes  one,  "how  our  government 
is  able  to  collect  clothes  and  food  for  so  many  and 
without  apparent  over-exertion  of  any  one.  Yet, 
here  we  are  by  the  hundreds,  well  clothed  and  well 
fed,  and  that  regularly,  too.  But  more  remarkable 
is  it,  how  all  these  men  can  be  compelled  to  work 
and  how  every  one  down  to  a  single  man  is  accounted 
for.  But  in  addition  to  the  general  army  discipline, 
such  as  everybody's  going  to  bed  or  getting  up  at  a 
certain  time,  or  doing  any  sort  of  labor  without  mur 
mur,  yet  the  boys  of  the  Signal  Corps  have  experi 
ences  that  call  for  initiative  and  coolness  that  are 
not  to  be  passed  over  lightly." 


From  the  Cantonments  183 

"For  the  prime  function  of  the  Signal  Corps  is  to 
TRANSMIT  INTELLIGENCE  ...  and  when 
given  a  bit  of  information  to  find  or  to  transmit, 
NO  EXCUSE  will  be  accepted  as  a  sufficient  reason 
for  failure.  Just  how  one  will  convey  his  message 
when  his  comrades  and  his  apparatus  have  been 
wiped  out  by  the  enemy  depends  upon  his  initiative." 

The  writer  adds,  "I  am  working  harder  than  I 
have  ever  worked  in  my  life.  I  can  take  twelve 
words  a  minute  from  a  wireless  receiver.  Fifteen 
accurately  per  minute  are  required.  Thirty  is  the 
highest  record  ever  made.  One  of  your  boys  takes 
eighteen  a  minute."  The  wireless  signaling  has  su 
perseded  other  forms  of  signaling  at  the  front,  as 
these  expose  the  sender  to  the  Teuton  sniper  whose 
sure  aim  instantly  destroys  the  hand  or  head  that 
rises  into  view. 

Stress  is  laid  upon  accuracy  in  sending  messages. 
"One  wrong  word  inserted  may  result  in  the  loss 
of  thousands  of  our  comrades.  We  have  a  wireless 
station  on  the  top  of  our  barracks,  and  the  more 
advanced  men  get  the  war,  weather,  and  baseball 
news  directly  from  the  government  stations  at  An 
napolis  and  Arlington.  We  feel  proud  that  our 
country  has  entrusted  so  important  an  office  to  us. 
We  shall  perform  our  tasks  like  men." 

The  good  feeling  which  Camp  Sherman  illustrates 
is  matched  by  similar  good  feeling  elsewhere.  One 
writer  in  a  published  article  says  of  Camp  Dodge, 


184  Chums  and  Brothers 

"There  is  a  large  contingent  of  Negro  troopers  here. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  there  has  been  prac 
tically  no  friction  resulting  from  race  prejudice. 
Even  the  Northern  soldiers  salute  the  colored  offi 
cers  without  any  protest."  Speaking  of  this  to  an 
officer  from  another  cantonment,  he  replied,  "The 
same  is  true  of  our  camp.  The  relations  of  the 
races  are  perfectly  friendly." 

There  has  just  come  to  hand  a  photograph  of  a 
colored  company  officered  by  colored  officers.  A 
hundred  and  thirty  men  are  in  the  picture,  and  as 
they  stand  with  rifle  "at  rest"  each  man  looks  every 
inch  a  soldier.  This  particular  picture  has  a  special 
interest  for  me  for  of  the  four  officers,  three  have 
been  in  my  own  classes,  and  because  of  this  fact  the 
picture  has  come  to  me.  And  as  I  look  at  those 
faces,  each  of  which  looks  straight  back  at  me,  I 
can  discern  individual  characteristics  despite  the 
uniformity  of  the  khaki  which  they  wear.  And  there 
comes  again  to  me  with  a  force  I  can  not  measure, 
the  thought  that  here  is  Africa  defending  America ; 
that  portion  of  our  citizenry  that  has  not  always 
felt  the  full  measure  of  our  Democracy  still  stand 
ing  guard  and  preparing  soon  it  may  be  to  go  over 
the  top  in  defence  of  the  principles  of  the  Pilgrim 
and  the  Puritan.  And  I  am  wondering  as  I  con 
tinue  to  look  at  the  picture,  what  shall  take  the  place 
of  "war"  in  the  new  world  that  is  to  be  and  that  is 
becoming,  that  shall  unite  men  and  shall  build  up  the 


From  the  Cantonments  185 

sentiment  of  "loyalty"  to  country  as  the  fact  of  war 
these  past  twelve  months  has  built  up  among  us. 
Peace  seems  to  be  divisive,  to  separate  men  into 
groups ;  war  unites.  Peace  develops  group  con 
sciousness,  selfishness ;  war  dissolves  all  class  lines 
and  makes  all  brothers.  There  is  a  striking  phrase 
in  a  little  volume  bearing  upon  the  situation  in  which 
the  world  finds  itself,  which  goes  after  this  fashion, — 
"Through  that  war  (1870)  France  took  her  soul 
out  of  the  custody  of  an  Emperor  and  handed  it 
to  her  people;  through  the  same  war,  Germany 
placed  her  soul  in  the  hands  of  an  Emperor.  De 
feated  France,  rid  of  her  Bonapartes;  victorious 
Germany,  shackled  to  her  Hohenzollern !"  Perhaps 
America  this  past  year  has  found  its  soul. 

I  am  sure  that  these  men  have  found  their  souls. 
They  have  made  the  supreme  sacrifice.  How  soon 
they  may  be  called  upon  to  carry  this  out  in  action 
none  of  us  can  tell.  If  they  come  back  from  France 
it  will  be  as  freemen ;  if  they  do  not  come  back  they 
will  have  fought  to  make  us  free.  And  so,  my  broth 
ers  in  khaki,  trained  to  be  soldiers  by  my  own  stu 
dents,  my  prayer  for  you  is  but  a  paraphrase  of 
the  prayer  in  the  Garden,  "not  that  these  should 
be  taken  out  of  the  world,  or  necessarily  left  in  the 
world;  that  I  leave  to  circumstance  and  to  the  Di 
vine  Will.  But,  Righteous  Father,  whether  they 
come  back  to  us  or  present  themselves  at  the  last 
reveille,  may  they  in  either  case  have  been  kept  from 


186  Chwms  and  Brothers 

the  evil  of  the  world,  and  come  to  us  or  to  You 
wearing  the  'white  flower  of  a  blameless  life.'  May 
they  possess  their  souls!" 


THE  UNIVERSITY   AND  THE   CHURCH 

IN  a  recent  lesson  in  Sunday  School  one  topic 
raised  the  question,  "What  have  Foreign  Mis 
sions  done?"  Twenty-five  phrases  characterized 
this  work.  Of  these  I  select  but  one  as  pertinent 
to  the  point  I  wish  to  discuss.  "Foreign  Missions 
have  greatly  extended  the  markets  of  America  by 
creating  in  Oriental  peoples  a  thousand  appetites 
which  only  international  trade  can  supply."  This 
means,  I  take  it,  that  international  trade  is  one  of 
the  by-products  of  Foreign  Missions. 

Sitting  in  the  library  a  few  days  ago,  I  opened 
a  new  book  on  Commercial  Geography,  and  read  a 
sentence  like  this :  "Originally  commerce  was  largely 
a  matter  of  transporting  luxuries;  today  the  com 
merce  of  the  world  is  largely  devoted  to  carrying 
the  great  staples  which  enter  into  our  living."  And 
I  wondered  if  this  too,  were  a  by-product  of  Mis 
sions,  and  if  in  a  true  sense  we  are  less  and  less 
exploiting  those  nations  that  produce  certain  luxu 
ries  of  our  modern  life,  and  are  instead  exchanging 
with  them  for  those  things  which  have  become  their 
necessities. 

And  this  calls  up  a  statement  which  I  cannot 
187 


188  Chums  and  Brothers 

place,  in  which  the  speaker  asks,  "Why  should  I  go 
to  the  heart  of  Africa  and  try  to  give  to  the  people 
there  the  things  of  our  Western  civilization,  of 
which  they  know  nothing  and  care  nothing?"  And 
the  answer  must  be  "This  will  build  up  international 
trade." 

Two  philosophies  are  warring  in  our  educational 
world.  The  one  came  to  us  with  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  university  men,  some  of  them,  who  early 
established  at  Cambridge  and  elsewhere  universities 
of  the  type  with  which  they  were  familiar,  schools  in 
which  the  training  of  the  mind  and  the  power  of 
thought  was  the  main  object.  To  a  large  extent 
this  fundamental  purpose  still  dominates  the  uni 
versity  life  of  America.  The  other  philosophy  deals 
with  practical  efficiency,  and  with  the  problems  of 
practical  life.  In  a  sense  these  two  schools  of  edu 
cational  thought  are  approaching  each  other.  But 
also  in  a  sense  they  are  widely  apart.  In  a  recent 
educational  gathering  in  this  city,  at  which  these 
two  philosophies  came  into  conflict,  one  speaker  re 
marked  with  emphasis,  "We  must  remember  that 
the  open  door  in  China  was  forced  upon  European 
nations  by  an  American  statesman,  trained  in  the 
American  university." 

I  confess  that  as  I  get  a  clearer  insight  into  the 
thought  of  this  newer  school,  I  appreciate  more  and 
more  its  tendencies  and  its  purposes,  and  I  also  see, 
though  dimly,  the  common  meeting  ground  of  these 


The  University  and  the  Church  189 

two  schools  of  educational  thought.  But  I  also  re 
mind  myself  that  the  situation  in  which  we  find  our 
selves  at  this  time  seems  to  have  arisen  out  of  wor 
ship  of  efficiency  and  practicality,  and  the  domina 
tion  of  things  which  the  German  nation  so  well  exem 
plifies,  and  which  borrowed  from  Germany  has  so 
markedly  affected  the  teaching  of  today.  And  I 
find  myself  wondering  if,  after  the  war  closes  (if  any 
remnant  of  our  civilization  is  left  when  it  does 
close),  I  say,  I  wonder  if  we  shall  not  return  to  the 
university  idea  of  the  past,  when  the  humanities  and 
literature,  and  pure  philosophy  and  religion,  were 
the  ordinary  subjects  of  the  curriculum,  with  the 
classics  thrown  in,  all  coupled  to  the  notion  of  high 
thinking  and  fine  living. 

JBe  this  as  it  may,  I  confess  again  to  feeling  that 
if  the  people  whom  the  Civil  War  set  free  were 
trained  in  ideals  it  was  well  for  them  that  the  schools 
established  by  Erastus  Cravath  at  Nashville,  by 
Edmund  Asa  Ware  at  Atlanta,  and  by  others  in 
other  places,  were  established  by  men  trained  in  uni 
versities  whose  philosophy  was  idealistic  rather  than 
in  our  more  modern  schools  whose  philosophy  tends 
to  the  practical. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  Morrill  bill, 
which  is  behind  the  state  universities  with  their  em 
phasis  upon  practical  matters,  was  passed  about 
the  time  that  the  Civil  War  closed,  so  that  the  only 
type  of  college  that  could  come  to  the  aid  of  the 


190  Chums  and  Brothers 

Freedmen  was  that  of  the  type  antedating  the  war. 
So  we  must  credit  to  the  schools  of  that  type  the 
initiation  of  that  progress  and  much  of  the  progress 
itself  of  the  Negro  of  which  he  and  his  friends  are 
so  justly  proud.  And  this  progress  takes  many 
forms,  economic,  social,  educational,  religious. 

And  I  repeat  here  something  said  elsewhere  in 
another  connection.  Standing  upon  the  steps  of 
Stone  Hall,  a  Southern  white  man  said  to  me,  "This 
school  must  mean  a  good  deal  to  the  colored  people 
of  Atlanta!"  I  replied,  "This  school  means  much 
to  the  white  people  of  Atlanta.  In  terms  of  money 
it  is  worth  a  million  dollars  a  year  to  the  city  and 
the  state."  And  this  is  true  of  Atlanta  because  the 
war  had  hardly  ended  before  Storrs  School,  Storrs 
Church  and  Atlanta  University  were  presenting,  not 
so  much  the  practical  things  of  life,  as  the  ideal 
things  of  life ;  and  these  institutions  with  their  sister 
institutions  have  "developed  so  many  appetites"  and 
standards  among  the  Freedmen  which  only  inter 
state  commerce  could  supply. 

I  used  this  argument  once  with  a  shrewd  business 
man,  telling  him  that  his  business  and  all  business 
in  this  country  was  larger  and  more  profitable  be 
cause  of  Atlanta  University ;  I  doubt  if  he  appreci 
ated  the  statement,  but  this  fact  gives  warrant,  if 
one  is  needed,  to  the  demand  upon  business  men  that 
they  support  and  endow  these  schools  for  the  Freed- 
men's  children  and  grandchildren. 


The  University  and  the  Church  191 

The  most  significant  event  in  the  history  of  At 
lanta  is  the  opening  of  Storrs  School,  on  that 
memorable  morning  when  the  colored  boys  and  girls 
of  Atlanta  saw  a  white  man  carrying  in  wood  to 
keep  them  comfortable,  and  who,  having  made  them 
warm,  opened  up  their  souls  to  ideals  of  life  and 
fed  those  ideals.  Such  was  the  influence  of  that 
incident  and  that  year,  that  in  the  half-century 
since  of  the  history  of  Atlanta  University,  the  uni 
versity  has  not  been  able  to  overcome  the  tendency 
of  colored  folk  to  settle  around  Storrs  School.  And 
this  tendency  has  made  the  fourth  ward  the  great 
colored  ward  of  the  city. 

The  bit  of  land  on  the  corner  of  Houston  street 
and  Piedmont  avenue  is  historic  ground.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  on  that  spot  was  born  demo 
cratic  education  for  Georgia,  white  and  colored. 
When  the  American  Missionary  Association  yielded 
up  its  claim  upon  Atlanta  University,  it  generously 
gave  the  university  all  the  property  around  the  uni 
versity  to  which  the  association  had  any  claim.  It 
has  always  been  a  matter  of  regret  to  me  that  the 
association  could  not  or  did  not  see  its  way  clear 
to  give  to  the  colored  people  of  Atlanta  the  site  of 
StorrS  School,  to  be  held  in  perpetuum,  for  their 
civic,  social  and  educational  betterment.  The  few 
thousand  dollars  received  for  the  property  were 
small  in  comparison  with  the  preservation  to  the  col- 


192  Chums  and  Brothers 

ored  people  of  a  bit  of  ground  so  wrought  into  the 
fiber  of  their  history. 

If  we  may  accept  the  statement  of  Southern  writ 
ers,  that  the  wealth  of  the  Southern  states  before 
the  war  was  developed  out  of  the  labor  of  the  Ne 
gro,  we  must  believe  that  under  that  regime  he  was 
fairly  efficient.  If  we  may  interpret  the  cry  from 
the  Southland  because  of  the  exodus  of  Negro  labor, 
drawn  North  by  a  vacuum  in  the  labor  market  as 
evidencing  present  day  efficiency  we  may  perhaps  be 
excused  if  we  think  that  efficiency  comes  with  the 
demand.  And  if  so,  then  we  may  also  rejoice  that 
the  first  teachers  who  met  the  Freedmen  and  their 
children  touched  the  sleeping  souls  of  their  stu 
dents  and  awoke  them  to  ideals. 


"BON  VOYAGE" 

THE  telegram  came  in  May.  It  said,  "Your 
friends,  who  have  become  my  friends,  have  re 
ceived  orders  to  prepare  to  leave  for  some  port  of 
embarkation."  The  telegram  told  two  things,  that 
the  same  lovable  qualities  that  endeared  these  youth 
to  us  had  made  friends  for  them  at  the  cantonment, 
and  that  the  event  for  which  our  boys  had  been 
nearly  a  year  in  expectation  and  in  preparation  was 
about  to  occur.  I  advertised  the  fact  somewhat 
widely  among  their  friends,  and  telegram  and  let 
ter  went  promptly  across  the  spaces.  Back  came 
a  reply,  "Our  departure  has  been  delayed  by  conges 
tion  of  traffic  on  the  roads  and  at  the  terminals." 
This  gave  a  breathing  space,  and  somehow  as  the 
fact  stared  at  us,  the  courage  came  to  meet  it. 
There  was  time  now  for  some  last  things,  some  mes 
sages  of  affection,  perhaps  some  prayers.  All  at 
once  there  came  a  bunch  of  cards,  mailed  en  route, 
and  a  telegram  that  came  first,  but  the  cards  in  or 
der  stated,  "We  are  in  the  station  at  Chicago  being 
served  by  the  young  women  of  the  canteen;"  "We 
are  journeying  through  Canada;"  "We  have  been 
detained  twelve  hours  at  a  little  town  in  New  York 

193 


194  Chums  and  Brothers 

on  a  siding,  and  the  town  turned  out  and  gave  us 
a  royal  send-off."  The  telegram  announced  the  ar 
rival  in  New  York  and  being  quartered  at  Camp 
Upton.  That  was  Saturday,  June  first.  The  tele 
gram  reached  me  Sunday.  I  sent  back  a  night  let 
ter,  "If  there  is  any  certainty  of  your  remaining  un 
til  the  tenth  I  will  see  you  off,"  and  the  reply  came 
back,  "Come  at  once,  by  Saturday,  if  possible." 

Now,  the  boys  had  come  to  see  us  in  October  and 
I  had  said  to  one  of  them  that  if  they  were  in  the 
country  in  the  vacation  I  would  go  to  see  them. 
And  the  opportunity  was  mine.  The  journey  to 
New  York  I  will  not  describe,  but  it  seemed  as  though 
every  interference  possible  to  hinder  presented  itself. 
Early  Sunday  morning  I  reached  the  metropolis, 
and  took  the  first  train  for  Camp  Upton.  It  took 
four  hours  and  a  half  to  cover  the  seventy  miles 
across  Long  Island.  We  waited  an  hour  and  a  half 
at  Jamaica  and  troop  train  after  troop  train  in 
endless  procession  went  back  empty  to  the  camp. 
And  then  came  the  question,  Had  these  trains  con 
veyed  our  boys  away  in  the  night,  had  we  missed 
the  purpose  of  our  journey  and  were  we  too  late? 
And  some  had  gone  the  night  before.  Gone!  the 
trains  took  them  somewhere,  where,  perhaps,  they 
boarded  the  transports  and  there  waited — a  day,  it 
may  have  been  a  week — when,  unannounced,  the 
ships  slipped  from  their  moorings  and  under  convoy 


"Bon  Voyage"  195 

! 

of  cruisers  and  destroyers  began  the  voyage  to 
"some  port  of  France." 

Thus  our  men  from  Camp  Sherman  had  slipped 
out  into  the  night  and  men  from  Camp  Grant  were 
busied  with  preparations  to  leave  at  midnight,  but 
my  welcome  at  the  barracks  had  a  warmth  which 
remains  with  me  still.  They  were  a  busy  company, 
these  officers,  so  recently  students  in  our  colleges ; 
the  last  things  were  being  done  to  perfect  the  equip 
ment.  But  they  were  not  too  busy  to  look  after  my 
creature  comforts  and  three  times  in  twelve  hours 
I  ate  as  soldiers  eat  and  was  satisfied.  And  now 
and  then  one  gave  me  a  few  minutes  and  we  had 
heart  to  heart  talks,  such  talks  as  are  possible  only 
in  the  presence  of  great  movements.  And  once, 
"the  boy"  brought  two  soldiers'  kits  and  we  sat  and 
ate  a  meal  together  as  we  had  done  many  a  time 
before,  and  it  seemed  like  a  sacrament.  I  must  not 
omit  to  mention  the  words  of  praise  for  our  Georgia 
boys  and  the  way  they  carried  themselves  during 
the  summer  at  Fort  Des  Moines. 

At  two  o'clock  Monday  morning  the  two  com 
panies  quietly  gathered  along  the  street  between  the 
buildings,  with  overcoats  and  packs.  There  was 
no  noise,  no  confusion.  These  500  men  were  be 
ginning  their  great  adventure  and  something  of  sol 
emnity  marked  their  bearing.  And  I  stood  and 
watched  them  as  they  lined  up  and  waited.  Two 
of  their  officers  stood  with  me,  the  two  boys  who 


196  Chums  and  Brothers 

were  nearest  to  me  of  all  that  company;  they  were 
my  own  students,  and  something  of  the  spirit  of 
the  men  in  the  street  below  came  to  me,  and  throw 
ing  one  arm  across  the  shoulder  of  each  of  my 
boys,  I  said:  "Lads,  it  seemed  last  June,  and  last 
October  as  you  started  for  Fort  Des  Moines  or  for 
your  cantonments,  that  I  could  not  let  you  go,  but 
to-night  my  feelings  have  changed.  I  rejoice  to 
see  you  enter  upon  your  great  work.  There  are 
now  no  unshed  tears.  I  am  glad  to  see  you  go." 
And  then  my  own  boy  piloted  me  to  my  lodging 
place  for  the  night.  Then  came  the  drum  beats  and 
I  knew  the  men  were  leaving,  and  in  a  few  moments 
I  heard  the  sound  of  departing  trains  and  the  men 
from  Camp  Grant  were  swiftly  borne  away  and  no 
word  has  yet  come  as  to  their  progress  upon  the 
great  ocean  and  toward  France. 

I  had  missed  the  men  from  Camp  Sherman:  Those 
from  Camp  Grant  I  was  with  for  twelve  hours,  and 
I  saw  them  off  to  France.  Monday  I  spent  with 
the  men  from  Camp  Dodge,  and  I  met  them  all,  and 
with  most  of  them  I  had  a  chance  for  a  real  con 
versation,  and  a  conversation  takes  time.  Again 
I  ate  with  soldiers  as  a  soldier,  and  at  these  meals 
I  met  and  exchanged  ideas  with  officers  that  I  was 
not  likely  to  have  met  under  other  circumstances. 
I  spent  several  hours  upon  the  training  field  and 
saw  our  own  student-officers  training  their  own  men. 
Perhaps  I  should  say  watching  their  men,  for  the 


"Bon  Voyage"  197 

drill  was  being  left  to  the  non-commissioned  offi 
cers.  I  saw,  therefore,  not  our  own  men  training 
but  the  results  of  their  training.  I  was  pleased  with 
what  I  saw.  I  had  to  be.  I  recall  that  a  group 
of  officers  and  myself  were  watching  an  evolution 
when  I  noticed  a  double  rank  of  men,  thirty-two 
abreast,  bearing  down  upon  us.  I  wondered  what 
must  happen,  for  we  were  manifestly  in  their  way, 
and  I  confess  to  an  impulse  to  run.  But  as  the 
platoons  were  not  more  than  three  feet  away  then 
rang  out  a  sharp  command  which  might  have  been 
"to  the  right,  march,'*  and  the  men  instantly  de 
ployed  in  double  file  at  right  angle  to  their  previ 
ous  direction  and  we  were  safe.  I  was  especially 
pleased  with  the  attitude  of  the  officers  toward  the 
men.  I  recall  a  "right  wheel"  that  worked  badly, 
for  at  the  word  "halt"  the  line  was  curved  and  not 
straight.  And  the  sergeant  in  command  in  a  most 
patient  and  kindly  way  explained  how  it  happened 
— I  think  the  fault  lay  with  the  man  around  whom 
the  wheel  is  made — I  think  he  should  lose  a  step, 
but  I  am  not  military  enough  to  be  sure;  however, 
the  courteous  manner  of  the  officer  remains  with  me, 
though  the  instructions  do  not,  and  the  men  a  moment 
later  repeated  the  movement,  and  "halt"  came  to  a 
perfect  alignment. 

Something  of  this  I  had  seen  before.  The  next 
was  the  bayonet  drill  and  this  had  a  curious  inter 
est,  and  as  the  bayonets  were  in  their  sheaths  this 


198  Chums  cmd  Brotlwrs 

seemed  only  a  variation  of  rifle  practice.  But  later 
I  found  a  group  drilling  with  naked  bayonets  upon 
dummies  and  here  the  real  intent  of  the  bayonet  was 
made  evident.  I  will  not  attempt  a  description.  It 
stands  out  the  most  distinct  item  of  the  day.  And 
I  am  sure  that  if  to  those  men  comes  the  chance 
"to  bayonet"  or  to  "be  bayonetted"  they  will  take 
the  initiative. 

And  what  I  saw  at  Camp  Upton  I  doubt  not  is 
being  rehearsed  somewhere  in  France  to-day  for  the 
Camp  Dodge  men  who  left  during  the  week,  and  they 
with  their  confreres  from  Camps  Grant,  Sherman, 
Dix  and  Meade  are  a  part  of  the  million  and  more 
of  American  soldiers  now  in  France,  and  I  find  my 
self  jubilant  over  the  fact  that  they  count  in  the 
army  fighting  for  world-liberty.  And  my  prayer 
for  them  now  is  the  old  prayer  with  a  new  phrase — 
"that  these  Thy  sons  and  our  sons,  this  particular 
group,  may  have  an  opportunity  for  a  service  so 
significant  that  it  shall  stand  out  and  be  recognized 
as  the  nations  of  the  world  gather  around  the 
peace  table  and  debate  the  great  questions  there  to 
be  adjusted." 

NOTE:  Since  this  article  was  written  the  Red- 
Cross  card  stating  that  "the  ship  on  which  I  sailed 
has  safely  arrived  over-seas"  has  been  received. 
These  cards  are  posted  as  the  men  enter  the  trans 
ports,  and  so  far  as  I  know,  there  is  no  limit  to 
the  number  each  may  post.  They  are  mailed  from 


Voyage"  199 

the  port  of  embarkation  as  soon  as  word  is  received 
of  the  safe  arrival  of  the  ship  abroad.  They  thus 
reach  the  persons  addressed  at  least  two  weeks  be 
fore  a  letter  can  come.  These  cards  are  mailed 
without  postage.  The  first  word  to  me  from  abroad 
is  dated  June  23rd,  and  was  just  three  weeks  in  com 
ing  across.  So  the  Red  Cross  cards  precede  any 
personal  communication  by  more  than  two  weeks. 
The  comfort  of  thus  early  knowing  that  our  sons 
had  safely  passed  through  the  war  zone  is  not  meas 
ured  in  words.  They  and  their  men  are  now  com 
pleting  their  training  in  France.  They  can  hardlv 
enter  the  second  division  of  the  American  army,  the 
second  250,000  to  be  ready  for  the  firing  line  by 
the  middle  of  August,  but  they  may  be  a  part  of 
the  third  division  and  ready  for  the  front  in  the 
fall. 


WITH  THE  MEN  IN  KHAKI 

MOST  of  us  would  be  willing  doubtless  if  once  in 
a  while  with  the  other  things  we  slough  off,  we 
could  slough  off  our  personal  identity.  And  yet 
there  are  times  when  we  are  glad  that  through  the 
passing  years  we  retain  enough  of  ourselves  to  re 
mind  our  friends  that  we  are  the  same  selves  in  a 
true  sense  that  we  were.  And  so  as  I  stepped  off 
the  train ;  and  the  boy  now  grown  to  man  met  me  I 
was  glad  that  despite  the  ten  years  that  had  elapsed 
since  we  parted,  and  despite  the  disguise  in  the  shape 
of  the  uniform  of  an  army  "Y"  secretary  that  he 
wore,  enough  remained  of  the  lad  that  I  had  known 
to  identify  him  and  as  we  clasped  hands  the  decade 
of  years  slipped  out  of  sight  and  we  took  up  our 
friendship  at  the  point  where  it  had  broken  off. 

A  well-groomed  machine  took  us  quickly  over  the 
good  roads  and  the  six  or  seven  miles  to  the  canton 
ment  and  having  been  stopped  by  the  guard  that 
looked  upon  me  disapprovingly,  but  accepted  the  au 
thority  of  the  "Y"  secretary  we  shortly  found  our 
selves  at  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  building.  I  had  written 
the  "boy"  that  I  could  eat  off  a  "kit"  and  sleep  on  a 
"cot"  but  as  I  looked  upon  the  little  room  set  apart 

200 


With  the  Men  in  Khaki  201 

for  my  use  and,  noted  the  flood  of  light  through  its 
three  windows,  the  simple  but  effective  furnishings, 
and  the  shelves  filled  with  books  whose  titles  made  me 
long  to  read  their  pages,  and  the  wish  came  that 
the  forty-eight  hours  of  my  visit  might  be  forty-eight 
days.  My  room  opened  upon  the  auditorium  and 
every  time  I  passed  through  I  saw  a  dozen  or  more 
men  in  khaki  writing  letters.  In  many  cases  it  seem 
ed  a  struggle,  and  as  I  glanced  at  the  pages,  the 
handwriting  was  crude  and  unformed.  But  they 
were  getting  the  letter-writing  habit,  and  each  let 
ter  would  get  somewhere  and  tell  some  one  not  only 
the  happenings  of  the  day  or  the  week,  but  by  word 
or  by  implication  tell  the  receiver  of  the  love  and 
remembrance  of  the  writer. 

I  was  a  little  disappointed  at  the  meals  to  find 
that  the  secretaries  do  not  eat  out  of  kits.  But  the 
table  furnishings  were  exceedingly  simple,  and  the 
meals  I  ate  those  days  at  the  barracks  seemed  like 
a  prolonged  picnic.  And  I  am  wondering  now,  as  I 
reflect  upon  the  simplicity  of  our  catering,  and  yet 
its  satisfactory  nature,  each  meal  marked  by  com 
radeship  with  men  having  an  exalted  mission,  if 
it  is  worth  while  to  make  so  much  of  creature- 
comforts.  Perhaps  one  outcome  of  the  war  will  be  a 
return  to  a  more  simple  life. 

After  breakfast  I  was  invited  to  the  morning  con 
ference  of  the  secretaries.  Here  I  found  I  had  met 
three  out  of  the  five  present,  the  force  being  short 


Chums  and  Brothers 

by  one  man  who  had  been  sent  to  another  camp. 
After  a  brief  religious  service,  a  discussion  arose  as 
to  the  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  absent  man  until 
his  successor  came,  and  it  was  enheartening  to  note 
the  team  work,  as  each  offered  to  do  not  a  little  but 
as  much  as  possible  of  the  work.  After  this  with  the 
"boy"  I  went  to  a  barracks  where  the  men  were  in 
terned  ;  he  carried  with  him  " Y"  papers  and  envelopes 
and  stamps  to  sell.  As  we  entered  the  mess  hall  the 
men  lined  up.  Each  bought  several  stamps.  Many 
bought  stamp  books;  all  took  sheets  of  paper  and 
envelopes  and  I  inferred  that  on  that  Saturday  and 
Sunday  those  men  were  sending  last  messages  home 
just  prior  to  being  entrained  for  some  port  of 
embarkation,  and  thence  to  "somewhere  in  France." 

That  Saturday  afternoon  I  watched  a  baseball 
game  between  teams  of  competing  regiments.  The 
sun  stood  at  99  degrees  and  the  white  sand  of  the 
parade  ground  made  looking  difficult.  But  I  stood 
out  a  large  part  of  the  game  and  I  saw  something 
that  I  had  never  seen  before.  The  batter  made  a 
home  run  to  have  it  counted  "foul" ;  made  a  similar 
strike  and  a  home  run  to  have  that  likewise  a  "foul" ; 
and  then  lost  out  on  three  strikes.  But  even  more 
interesting  to  me  was  it  to  watch  the  athletic 
director  of  the  "Y,"  and  I  decided  that  if  I  only 
could  do  it,  that  would  be  the  work  I  would  like. 

But  after  supper,  I  stood  near  the  business  man 
ager's  desk  and  watched  him  play  the  "big  brother" 


With  the  Men  m  Khaki  203 

to  so  many  who  seemed  to  need  a  big  brother  that 
to  be  business  manager  seemed  to  me  the  position  of 
positions.  And  for  a  few  minutes  I  played  the  part. 
A  burly  fellow,  an  overgrown  boy,  held  up  a  stamp 
from  which  the  sweat  of  his  body  had  removed  all 
the  mucilage.  In  a  helpless  way  he  had  hunted  for 
the  glue-bottle;  the  director  was  busy.  So  he 
looked  at  me;  and  I  said  "wait,"  and  I  went  to  my 
grip,  got  out  a  tube  of  paste  and  helped  him  out. 
And  that  act  of  good  will  classified  me,  and  a  dozen 
other  men  came  up  with  stamps  that  would  not  stick 
for  a  similar  courtesy.  The  last  man  brought  up  a 
bundle  and  asked  me  to  stick  on  a  "Y"  letter  head 
on  which  he  had  placed  an  address.  I  made  a  more 
shipshape  bundle  for  him,  sighed  as  I  noted  the  size 
of  the  paper  and  the  smallness  of  my  tube  of  paste, 
but  put  the  address  in  place,  and  then  printed  the 
same  more  legibly.  He  looked  at  me  without  vocal 
thanks,  but  with  an  air  of  relief,  and  said:  "You 
will  send  it  off  at  once,  won't  you?"  As  I  looked 
at  the  hundreds  of  similar  bundles  piled  in  the  gath 
ering  room  I  felt  doubtful,  but  said :  "Speak  to  the 
director." 

This  brought  up  an  experience  the  day  that  I  was 
"registrar  without  pay."  A  mother  brought  her  son 
to  be  registered  and  having  shown  that  he  had  weak 
eyes,  and  a  weak  heart  and  was  weak-kneed  also,  she 
said,  as  though  I  was  the  court  of  last  resort,  "You 
will  not  send  him  away  from  me,  will  you?" 


204  Chwms  and  Brothers 

It  being  Saturday,  the  evening  entertainment  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  men  themselves.  The  auditorium 
was  filled.  I  sat  on  one  side  and  noted  that  amid 
all  the  hurly  burly  two  men  in  the  center  of  the  hall 
kept  writing  letters.  I  could  not  have  done  it. 
There  were  solos  and  quartettes ;  one  young  fellow 
walked  a  loose  wire  to  our  edification,  and  finally 
lay  down  upon  it  as  though  to  sleep.  Then  he  got 
up,  sat  upon  a  hoop  and  rolled  back  and  forth  until 
he  rolled  off.  But  the  stunt  of  stunts  that  captured 
the  audience  was  the  boxing.  I  have  thought  that 
the  interest  for  the  boxers  lay  in  the  boxing  gloves 
that  were  tied  onto  their  hands.  Perhaps  they  obeyed 
the  Marquis  of  Queensbury's  rules.  But  they  ad 
vanced  and  retreated,  and  ducked  and  punched,  and 
when  one  gave  a  good  blow  he  was  roundly  cheered. 

Is  it  that  war  and  religion  have  a  common  ele 
ment?  Was  it  a  Sunday  habit?  or  was  it  the  social 
instinct  that  brought  so  many  to  Sunday  school  the 
next  morning?  The  building  secretary  did  a  daring 
thing.  He  called  all  the  men  who  could  not  read  or 
write,  or  who  were  in  the  First  Reader  to  the  plat 
form  where  he  could  meet  them  in  class.  And  they 
came.  The  others  were  gathered  in  groups  accord 
ing  to  their  school  grades,  and  the  chaplain  took  a 
large  class  of  low  grade,  too  large  a  class  to  be  a 
credit  to  the  state  that  has  given  such  limited  op 
portunities.  The  most  mature  class — 7th  and  8th 
grades — was  given  to  me.  The  lesson  was  upon  the 


With  the  Men  m  Khaki  205 

Good  Samaritan.  After  one  or  two  trials  to  get 
together,  we  read  verse  by  verse,  and  the  men  read 
well.  When  we  came  to  the  priest,  I  asked  why  he 
did  as  he  did.  There  was  no  lack  of  reasons  rele 
vant  and  irrelevant.  Finally  one  soldier  said — and 
I  can  see  him  now — "Perhaps  he  drew  the  social  line 
upon  the  man."  That  answer  seemed  to  interest 
the  class.  I  confessed  the  thought  was  new  to  me; 
I  knew  the  feeling  toward  Samaritans,  and  that 
pious  Jews  had  no  social  dealings  with  publicans 
and  sinners,  but  among  themselves — did  the  priestly 
class  and  the  Levites  have  only  business  relations 
with  the  merchants  and  farmers?  So  I  suggested 
that  the  action  of  both  priest  and  Levite  may  have 
been  due  to  fear  from  the  possible  nearness  of  the 
thieves.  Then  we  counted  up  the  number  of  things 
the  Samaritan  did.  It  is  a  goodly  number,  and  sur 
prised  the  class.  Then  the  question  came,  What 
did  the  Samaritan  forget  to  do?  The  man  who  gave 
the  answer  above  spoke  up,  "He  did  not  forget  any 
thing."  "It  seems  to  me,"  I  said,  "that  he  forgot 
to  draw  the  social  line  from  your  answer;  and  from 
mine,  he  forgot  to  be  afraid."  In  reply  to  the  ques 
tion,  who  is  my  neighbor?  we  repeated  twice  the  verse 
of  my  childhood: 

"Who  is  my  neighbor?     He  who  needs 

The  help  that  I  can  give; 
And  all  the  law  and  prophets  say, 
This  do  and  thou  shalt  live." 


206  Chums   and  Brothers 

Finally  I  put  this  question,  What  is  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  to  do?  The  man  who  had  an 
swered  my  other  questions  spoke  up  quickly,  "To  be 
good."  "No,"  was  my  reply,  "that  is  the  hardest 
thing.  To  make  friends  is  the  easiest  thing.  A 
kindly  look,  a  handshake,  a  gentle  word,  an  act  of 
good  will  are  enough.  And  if  this  is  so  why  is  it 
that  we  are  so  prone  to  make  enemies?"  and  there 
the  lesson  ended. 

The  Sunday  School  closed  with  a  bit  of  evangel 
ism.  Under  these  new  surroundings,  with  this  great 
body  of  men  more  or  less  strangers,  facing  military 
drill  and  the  certainty  of  being  sometime  at  the 
front,  the  deeper  problems  of  life  must  appeal  to 
these  fellows  as  never  before.  And  to  the  invitation 
of  the  religious  secretary  to  declare  themselves,  both 
at  the  Sunday  School  and  at  the  evening  service,  a 
dozen  or  more  men  came  forward  to  give  the  hand 
of  fellowship,  and  the  act  was  cemented  as  far  as  may 
be  by  giving  a  pocket  testament,  which  each  received 
after  filling  out  a  card,  with  the  name,  the  address, 
the  church  and  the  pastor.  With  this  the  secre 
tary  put  the  pastor  in  touch  with  the  man  and  thus 
a  line  of  connection  was  opened.  As  I  observed  this 
twice  that  Sunday,  I  wondered  if  the  work  of  the 
religious  secretary  might  not  be  the  most  inter 
esting. 

I  was  a  little  nervous  over  the  afternoon — and  that 
brings  in  a  little  story.  I  had  met  two  lieutenants, 


With  tJie  Men  in  Khaki  207 

for  strange  to  say,  in  this  southern  cantonment  two 
men,  both  college  men,  had  risen  from  stevedores 
to  second  lieutenants  by  sheer  force  of  merit.  They 
were  strong  fellows  and  twice  I  had  long  talks  with 
each.  And  one  of  them  had  chanced  to  say  that 
the  men  were  a  hard  audience  to  speak  to.  "You 
can  call  them  together,  but  you  must  put  the  'pep' 
into  what  you  say  or  they  will  get  up  and  leave  you." 
Did  he  know  that  I  was  to  speak  that  afternoon, 
and  was  he  giving  me  a  little  advice  in  advance?  I 
told  the  fellows  that  story  which  seems  to  me  one  of 
the  most  significant  items  in  the  history  following 
President  Wilson's  declaration  of  war,  the  story  of 
the  student  movement  that  gave  us  first  the  O.  T.  C. 
at  Fort  Des  Moines,  then  the  626  commissions ;  then 
the  return  of  our  commissioned  officers  as  training- 
officers  in  the  various  cantonments;  then  their  gath 
ering  at  Camp  Upton  in  June ;  and  lastly  their  trans 
fer  overseas,  where  they  are  now  training  to  go  to 
the  front.  At  the  close  I  showed  the  picture  of  the 
183rd  brigade  at  Camp  Grant,  a  picture  full  of 
light  and  arrested  motion ;  of  its  kind  I  have  seen 
none  better.  They  crowded  around  it  eagerly.  At 
the  last  one  asked,  "Are  the  officers  all  our  men?" 
"All  the  line  officers  are  your  men,"  was  the  reply. 
"They  are  fairer  to  us  up  there  than  down  here." 
I  had  to  say,  "Yes." 

I  had  another  opportunity  to  watch  the  men  that 
afternoon   as   a  long  procession   marched  past   the 


£08  Chums  and  Brothers 

business  secretary  to  purchase  stamps.  Many  let 
ters  were  written  home  that  Sunday.  I  saw  one 
man  with  three.  I  said  to  him,  "Those  will  cost  you 
nine  cents.  You  cannot  afford  to  write  so  many 
letters.  Think  how  many  cigarettes  you  might  have 
bought  with  that  money!" 

"I  do  not  smoke,"  he  said,  "nor  chew,  and  so  I 
can  write  all  the  letters  I  wish."  By  this  time  a 
little  group  was  listening  as  I  went  on,  "Good. 
When  you  get  over  there  you  can  mail  your  letters 
free  of  postage.  Remember  that  your  friends  here 
are  as  eager  to  hear  from  you  as  you  are  to  hear 
from  them.  Write  them  often." 

That  evening  the  building  secretary  took  us  in 
his  machine  around  the  camp.  It  is  one  of  the  larg 
est,  being  planned  for  100,000  men.  What  im 
pressed  me  was  not  so  much  the  bigness — the  rifle 
range  is  twenty  miles  long — as  a  certain  air  of  per 
manence  and  I  remarked  to  my  friends,  "The  govern 
ment  is  not  only  in  the  business  of  preparedness,  but 
is  in  it  to  stay.  Never  again  shall  we  be  caught 
unprepared." 

After  the  evening  service  the  "boy"  and  I  walked 
out  in  the  lighted  streets,  and  finally  strolled  into 
the  A.  L.  A.  Library.  Opposite  the  entrance  were 
shelves  of  books  marked  Technical.  Glancing  at  the 
titles,  they  were  books  on  aviation,  on  gas  engines, 
automobiles,  explosives,  munitions  of  war,  books  I 
had  not  heard  of  and  of  which  there  were  manv 


With  the  Men  m  Khaki  209 

duplicates  for  the  use  of  the  men.  The  Librarian 
told  us  that  there  were  more  of  these  than  any  other 
group.  In  contrast  to  these  were  the  first  readers 
for  men  taking  their  first  lessons  in  books.  These 
are  the  limits.  One  item  was  the  60  or  more  geome 
tries  always  in  use  in  the  O.  T.  C.  by  men  studying 
for  examination  necessary  to  their  commissions.  I 
reflected  that  this  side  of  the  library  seemed  adapted 
to  one  group  and  not  the  other.  Yet  I  could  but 
hope  the  time  was  coming  when  this  inequality  might 
be  adjusted. 

As  we  sat  together  late  that  night,  I  thought  much 
of  the  men  and  the  secretaries;  what  it  must  mean 
to  these  soldiers,  gathered  from  so  many  localities, 
many  of  them  of  limited  education  and  advantages, 
to  meet  these  six  secretaries,  each  touching  them  at 
a  dozen  different  points,  as  they  realize  that  these 
are  not  working  them  but  are  working  with  them 
and  for  them. 

Nothing,  however,  was  said  on  this  line.  We  read 
two  or  three  short  prayers,  and  separated  for  the 
night.  Early  the  next  morning  we  said  our  last 
words  of  "Good-bye"  at  the  station,  the  "boy"  went 
back  to  the  camp  and  I  continued  my  journey,  feel 
ing  that  I  was  closing  a  wonderful  experience,  one 
that  I  would  not  willingly  have  dropped  out  of  an 
interesting  summer. 


FROM  "OVERSEAS" 

IT  was  six  weeks  after  seeing  the  men  off  to 
France  in  June,  before  any  word  was  received 
from  them.  Even  the  Red  Cross  cards  were 
strangely  belated.  After  letters  began  to  come  they 
came  with  a  pleasing  frequency,  though  these  were 
received  weeks  after  they  were  written.  They  were 
in  the  main  fragmentary  and  always  dated  "Some 
where  in  France."  In  August,  the  newspapers  gave 
more  information  so  that  I  was  able  to  locate  our 
lads  in  the  Vosges  mountains  and  we  wrote  them 
that  we  knew  where  they  were.  After  this  the  let 
ters  were  a  little  more  specific.  The  writers  felt 
authorized  in  telling  us  as  much  as  we  already  knew. 
When  I  saw  that  these  men  from  the  R.O.T.C. 
were  censoring  their  own  letters  I  was  more  than 
pleased  to  note  that  no  information  leaked  out 
through  their  correspondence.  Until  the  War  De 
partment  told  the  world  where  the  92d  Division 
was,  their  position  and  their  actions  overseas  were 
absolutely  unknown. 

The  possibilities  of  unintentional  information  be 
ing  given  out  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  a  white 
lieutenant  who  wrote  his  mother  that  in  a  canteen 

210 


From  "Overseas" 

he  had  been  waited  upon  by  Mrs.  Vincent  Astor. 
At  that  time  that  lady  was  known  to  be  near  Bor 
deaux  and  we  came  to  the  conclusion  rather  fairly 
that  his  division  was  located  near  that  city. 

This  group  of  letters  was  written  after  the  armi 
stice  was  signed  and  our  young  men  could  write 
freely.  These  lads  had  had  a  wonderful  experience 
and  were  feeling  the  first  freedom  from  the  duty  of 
censorship.  As  these  letters  came,  we  shared  them 
with  one  another ;  they  were  too  costly  to  be  kept  to 
one's  self.  The  letters  to  students  have  a  frank 
ness  not  only  in  the  letters  themselves  but  in  the 
diction,  which  is  freer  than  in  the  letters  addressed 
to  me.  This  gives  them  an  added  interest. 

Pont-a-Mousson,  France, 
Hq.  Co.  K,  365th  Inf., 
A.P.O.  766,  A.E.F., 
24  November,  1918. 

dear  Father: 

Today  is  "Dad  Day"  with  us  when  every 
soldier  is  asked  to  write  a  letter  to  his  father.  Just 
a  short  itinerary  of  my  sojourn  in  France.  After 
leaving  the  port  of  Hoboken,  N.  J.,  June  10,  1918, 
I  spent  twelve  days  on  the  deep  blue  ocean.  We 
landed  at  Brest,  France,  the  port  from  which  Caesar 
is  said  to  have  sailed  for  England.  There  we  re 
mained  three  days  in  a  rest  camp.  Then  we  de- 


212  Chums  and  Brothers 

parted  for  our  first  training  area,  twenty-eight  miles 
southeast  of  Chamont. 

After  three  days'  travel  over  French  railroads  in 
box  cars,  we  arrived  at  Bourbon  Les  Bains,  from 
which  we  walked  8  miles  to  Parnot  where  we  were 
billeted.  Here  we  spent  some  busy,  happy  days. 
The  people  were  very  hospitable  and  kind  and  they 
did  all  in  their  power  to  make  us  happy  after  those 
hard,  strenuous  days  on  the  drill  ground  and  ma 
noeuvre  field.  After  seven  weeks  of  training  we  went 
into  the  front  line  trenches.  There  we  worked  for 
a  few  days  with  the  French  before  taking  the 
trenches  alone.  St.  Die  was  where  the  Division  Head 
quarters  were  located.  From  all  information  that 
we  could  ascertain,  our  company  was  the  first  of 
the  92d  Division  to  occupy  the  front  line  trenches. 
The  officers  present  at  that  time  were  Capt.  Echols, 
Lieuts.  Burgess,  Smith,  Nelson  and  Peters.  Here  I 
had  my  first  experiences  with  a  patrol  in  "No  Man's 
Land."  After  spending  22  days  in  the  front  line 
and  11  days  in  the  support,  our  division  was  re 
lieved  to  assist  the  new  commander  in  any  details 
desired.  After  24  hours  I  marched  8  kilometers  to 
St.  Die.  I  joined  the  company  about  4  o'clock 
P.M.  and  then  the  company  left  St.  Die  at  5:30. 
We  hiked  45  kilometers  to  Lavaline.  It  was  a  stren 
uous  hike  and  many  fell  out.  The  next  morning  we 
took  a  train  for  Givry  in  the  Argonne  Forest. 

Our  Battalion  was  detailed  to  follow  up  the  ad- 


From  "Overseas" 

vance  with  the  77th  Division.  Here  we  encountered 
a  few  Germans  but  with  no  losses.  At  this  time, 
T  was  detailed  to  attend  a  School  of  Arms  at  Gon- 
drecourt.  I  visited  St.  Dozier  and  Toul  before  my 
arrival  there. 

Here  I  spent  a  wonderful  month  in  study  and 
work.  Then  I  returned  to  the  Marbach  sector 

where  I  found  my  company  on  X hill  south  of 

Metz,  with  the  enemy  three  hundred  yards  away  in 
Bois  de  Frehaut  and- Bois  de  la  Voivrette.  After 
a  day  or  two  Capt.  Echols  took  charge  of  the  Bat 
talion  as  the  Bn.  Commander  was  gassed.  Lieut. 
Burgess  and  the  other  officers  were  gassed,  leaving 
me  alone  with  the  company.  The  orders  came  to 
go  over  the  top,  and  I  had  the  chance  and  opportu 
nity  for  which  you  had  longed.  With  a  company 
of  two  hundred  strong  and  a  Sgt.  in  second  com 
mand,  I  led  my  company  over  the  top.  When  the 
armistice  was  signed  we  were  pressing  on  the  final 
drive  for  Peace.  My  men  were  in  Bois  de  Frehaut,  a 
previous  German  position.  This  is  your  Christmas 
letter.  We  are  now  resting  in  Pont-a-Mousson. 

Just  a  little  secret  to  you.  I  was  again  recom 
mended  for  promotion,  on  Nov.  £.  However,  there 
will  be  no  more  promotions  according  to  the  War 
Department. 

YOUR  SON. 


Chums  and  Brothers 

Headquarters,  1st  Bn.  365th  Inf., 

A.P.O.  766, 
Amberieu,  France. 
.  Webster: 

You  cannot  imagine  how  much  your  most  in 
teresting  letter  of  Dec.  4  pleased  me.  It  found  me 
well  and  enjoying  what  we  term  our  last  days  in 
beautiful  France. 

The  horrors  of  war  are  over  and  everyone  is 
watching  with  interest  -the  Great  Peace  Conference 
and  the  result  of  the  same.  But  to  the  anxious  sol 
dier  of  the  A.E.F.  comes  the  question,  "When  is  it 
our  turn  to  start  for  America  to  see  the  loved  ones 
left  behind?"  Yet  we  are  anxious  to  see  the  results 
of  the  great  cause  we  fought  for  and  for  which  so 
many  of  our  brave  comrades  died. 

We  are  blessed  at  this  time  with  good  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
workers  and  they  are  doing  their  bit  to  make  the 
anxious  boys  happy;  on  January  1,  my  good  col 
lege  President  Hope  was  my  guest  for  New  Year's 
dinner  and  how  happy  I  was  to  have  him!  Dur 
ing  the  conversation  he  spoke  of  the  splendid  work 
of  the  boys  of  the  Atlanta  schools  and  of  course  it 
was  with  deep  regret  we  had  to  mention  our  dear 
comrades,  Rush  and  Canady.  God  bless  their  fam 
ilies  and  the  great  cause  for  which  they  died ! 

You  spoke  of  our  dear  Harry  commanding  Co. 
K.  in  the  first  line  the  day  the  armistice  was  signed. 
Yes,  it  is  true,  and  not  only  that,  he  commanded 


From  "Overseas"  215 

that  company  with  only  the  assistance  of  N.C.O.'s 
for  twelve  days  in  one  of  the  most  dangerous  posi 
tions  in  the  sector.  Yes,  Harry  is  a  good  soldier 
and  a  leader  of  men  and  when  he  returns  to  you  and 
to  his  school,  you  can  say,  "Here  is  a  commander 
that  won  the  affection  of  not  only  the  men  of  his 
company,  but  of  the  entire  Battalion  of  which  he 
was  a  member,  and  of  the  members  of  other  Battal 
ions  that  knew  him." 

Yes,  I  know  just  how  anxious  those  young  men 
of  the  S.A.T.C.  were  to  join  their  brothers  in  France 
to  put  a  crushing  blow  on  the  Boche,  but  they  did 
as  you  told  them.  They  did  their  bit. 

We  have  a  wonderful  major  for  Battalion  Com 
mander.  He  is  a  young  man  just  S9  years  old,  but 
a  wonderful  man,  with  brilliant  ideas,  and  a  real 
"American,"  a  real  brother.  Yes,  we  love  him;  he 
has  been  with  us  only  since  the  armistice  was  signed 
but  no  better  time  when  men  were  worn  with  the  hor 
rors  of  war  could  they  have  sent  us  such  a  blessing. 
He  dines  with  us  and  discusses  questions  and  gives 
his  ideas.  He  is  a  lawyer  and  has  been  in  the  leg 
islature  of  -  -  (a  southern  state).  He  is  a  man 
born  with  new  ideas  of  Democracy  for  all  men.  He 
read  to  us  at  supper  a  few  nights  ago  his  platform 
and  among  the  things  he  put  concerning  colored  peo 
ple,  were  better  schools  and  higher  grades,  their 
rights  as  citizens,  and  justice  by  law. 

We  hope  to  be  home  soon,  just  when  we  do  not 


(216  Chums  and  Brothers 

know.  But  it  won't  be  long.  Then  we  can  chat  in 
a  more  general  manner  about  conditions  and  future 
happenings.  America  would  be  a  fine  place  to  live 
in  and  men  would  be  proud  of  her  if  such  men  as 
the  young  lawyer  I  mentioned  came  out  for  real  De 
mocracy  and  not  for  a  sham. 

Feel  proud  of  your  boys  who  have  been  in  the 
great  war  and  of  those  who  were  willing,  those  dear 
mothers,  wives  and  other  relatives  who  have  had  to 
suffer.  They  should  be  proud  of  their  boys,  for 
great  was  the  cause  for  which  their  boys  fought. 

I  must  tell  you  this  for  fear  that  I  will  forget 
it.  An  officer  in  our  regiment  was  in  the  hospital. 
He  had  to  censor  a  letter  from  a  white  private  from 
Alabama.  And  in  the  letter  were  these  words, 
"Mamma,  I  am  in  the  hospital  with  a  number  of 
Negroes.  Of  course  I  have  to  wait  on  them  and  they 
wait  on  us,  and  some  of  our  boys  are  in  bad  con 
dition.  But  the  wonderful  patience  they  have !  and 
how  they  wish  to  share  with  us!  I  am  a  changed 
boy.  I  shall  always  treat  the  colored  man  more  as  a 
brother  when  I  return,  and  whenever  I  have  a  chance 
to  say  a  good  word  for  him,  I  will  do  it." 

I  have  had  wonderful  experiences  and  we  wonder 
if  we  shall  ever  relate  all  of  them  or  shall  we  for 
get  some. 

"Bonne  Annee  pour  vous  et  famille." 

Yours, 

LIEUT.  . 


From  "Overseas"  217 

France, 

October  26,  1918. 
TV/T  Y  dear  friend  Bert: 

•l^A  Your  most  interesting  letter  of  a  few  weeks 
ago  was  received.  I  was  over-rej  oiced  to  receive 
your  letter,  being  in  the  front  line  where  everything 
from  home  is  good  and  a  place  where  a  piece  of  news 
paper  with  just  six  English  lines  is  cherished. 

Bert,  my  dear  old  pal,  I  just  can  picture  you  and 
myself  for  a  good  time  when  I  return.  I  long  for 
that  day  of  real  good  times  that  we  used  to  have, 
the  days  that  have  passed  and  gone. 

Here  is  wishing  you  the  very  best  of  success  in 
the  Officers'  Training  Camp  and  hoping  that  you 
will  not  have  to  come  to  the  trenches;  it  is  enough 
for  one  pal  to  be  in  this  war  and  the  other  to  keep 
the  home  fires  burning  until  the  other  return  or 
"partee  tout  suite.9'  Comprenez?  Wee!  Wee! 

It  is  my  hope  and  desire  to  be  just  as  the  words 
you  quoted.  I  have  seen  quite  a  bit  of  beautiful 
France.  I  have  been  on  many  a  battle-field,  under 
all  sorts  of  barrages  and  heavy  artillery  fire  and 
thus  far  I  am  safe  and  sound.  It  is  the  marvelous 
work  of  "Our  Maker."  Harry  is  a  dear  boy.  I 
just  had  a  letter  from  him  to-day;  he  is  so  thought 
ful.  I  would  that  I  was  as  good  as  he.  He  is  an 
ideal  young  man.  One  worthy  of  the  best  that  there 
is  in  life;  he  will  rejoin  us  in  a  few  days. 

I   feel    ashamed   that   I   have   not   written   Prof. 


218  Chums  and  Brothers 

Webster  and  a  number  of  other  dear  friends,  but 
the  time  has  not  permitted  me.  My  work  requires 
me  on  the  job  at  all  times.  There  is  no  relief  for 
me  except  when  the  Division  rests  and  that  is  not 
often. 

We  hope  to  end  this  war  soon,  so  that  no  more 
of  our  boys  will  have  to  come  over  to  take  hands  in 
this  dastard  struggle. 

The  Intelligence  work  is  most  interesting ;  it  deals 
directly  with  the  enemy. 

An  American  soldier  who  is  doing  his  bit,  is  a  sol 
dier  whether  he  be  an  officer  or  an  enlisted  man. 
Do  not  think  that  I  would  push  you  aside  because 
I  am  an  officer.  He  who  stood  by  me  when  fire  was 
its  heaviest,  and  who,  under  the  heaviest  fire  on  a 
certain  sector  for  four  years,  went  with  me  for  a 
kilometer  and  a  half,  was  no  other  than  my  orderly, 
and  I  love  him. 

I  have  a  staff  of  my  own ;  a  fine  bunch  of  chaps ; 
— two  sergeants,  one  corporal  and  three  privates 
whom  I  have  slept  and  eaten  with  for  the  last  two 
months.  These  chaps  are  real  workers ;  they  stick 
with  me  to  the  last.  We  have  had  hard  work  but 
not  as  yet  has  a  complaint  come  against  us.  I  have 
direct  charge  of  83  men  with  the  aid  of  the  staff 
mentioned  above.  I  hope  to  be  able  to  send  you  some 
of  the  samples  of  my  work. 

Now  that  it  is  school  time  and  I  am  sure  that 
everything  is  in  its  bloom,  I  wish  I  was  there.  I 


From  "Overseas"  219 

should  like  so  much  to  see  a  real  good  foot-ball  game 
Thanksgiving;  but  the  game  for  us  will  be  against 
the  Boche,  and  the  score  will  be  in  our  favor. 

Could  you  imagine  for  29  days  in  a  certain  sec 
tor,  I  did  not  pull  my  shoes  off  except  for  a  bath 
and  not  again  for  16  days? 

I  have  made  and  studied  maps,  so  that  when  I 
sleep,  I  see  them.  I  even  talk  about  them  in  my 
sleep.  I  hope  to  be  able  to  continue  this  work  when 
I  return.  It  is  my  joy. 

It  was  just  at  the  break  of  day  on  the  morn  of 
— - —  when  I  was  ordered  by  the  Battalion  Com 
mander  to  get  information  from  our  line,  when  a 
barrage  of  a  box  kind  was  put  down  and  all  com 
munication  was  cut  off  from  our  front  line.  Shells 
were  falling  from  all  directions  but  I  succeeded  in 
reaching  my  objective;  we  were  then  able  to  com 
municate  over  wire,  a  message  for  support  was  sent. 
As  I  was  returning  and  the  shelling  was  still  heavy, 
I  met  a  Sergeant  in  command  of  a  platoon  going 
with  the  speed  that  was  at  his  command  to  the  as 
sistance  of  the  Co.  on  the  right  flank.  I  smiled  as 
he  passed;  his  passing  remarks  were:  "Lieut.,  here 
is  your  platoon  going  to  their  comrades'  assistance; 
we  saw  you  go  by  and  we  remarked  that  if  you  did, 
we  would  be  your  living  image  and  we  will  do  it." 
It  was  my  platoon  when  I  was  in  the  Company  and 
since  I  have  been  on  the  staff,  this  Sgt.  has  com 
manded  the  platoon  with  a  soldierly  quality  and  he 


Chums  and  Brothers 

was  highly  praised  by  the  Regiment  and  by  Com 
manders.  I  love  this  lad  for  he  did  my  will.  We 
then  went  into  other  sectors  and  he  continued  and 
finally,  in  this  sector,  when  he  was  inspecting  his  po 
sition,  he  was  killed  by  a  heavy  shell  from  the  enemy. 
My  soul  is  sad,  for  he  was  a  good  man.  A  part  of 
my  happiness  is  now  buried  with  him,  I  had  the  ut 
most  confidence  in  his  leadership.  Thus  is  life 
for  soldiers.  How  many  such  good  men  have  fallen 
for  the  cause  of  their  country!  We  that  are  spared 
to  see  this  day,  we  know  not  when  our  turn  will 
come.  I  am  sad  when  I  write  of  my  dear  boy,  but 
I  love  to  tell  the  story  of  such  a  good  man. 

Bert,  my  dear  Pal,  remember  me  to  all  the  boys 
and  girls  and  to  your  dear  mother,  father  and  fam 
ily.  Just  a  prayer  for  our  black  boys  over  here 
with  the  tortures  of  war  and  the  things  we  had  to 
contend  with  at  home. 

May  the  "God  of  Heaven"  right  this  world,  not 
only  the  German  people,  but  our  own  free-born 
Americans ;  and  may  Democracy  pull  off  her  clothes 
of  hypocrisy. 

I  would  that  I  could  tell  you  all  that  I  want  to. 

Regards  to  all. 

I  am  your  Pal, 

CHAS. 


From  "Overseas"  221 

Metz,  Germany,  Dec.  5,  1918. 

DEAR  Pal: 
It  is  indeed  a  pleasure  to  write  you  at  this 
time.  I  wrote  you  a  letter  some  time  ago,  but  due 
to  congestion  and  delayed  mail  service,  I  am  in  doubt 
as  to  whether  you  received  it  or  not.  Hope  you 
and  the  bunch  are  getting  along  all  O.  K.  How  are 
Thomp,  Stinson,  White  and  the  other  fellows?  Give 
them  my  best  regards.  Would  have  written  the  fel 
lows  but  have  been  almost  too  busy  to  sleep  at 
times.  Tell  them  all  to  write  a  few  lines.  My  re 
gards  to  the  class  of  '20.  Guess  you  are  all  very 
happy  over  the  defeat  of  Kaiserism.  We  are  feeling 
a  bit  proud  over  here.  And  I  am  indeed  glad  that 
I  had  a  real  active  hand  in  helping  to  settle  up  the 
fuss ;  and  very  fortunate  for  me,  that  I  am  still  alive 
and  have  not  lost  any  of  my  limbs,  only  received 
one  slight  shrapnel  wound,  which  did  not  amount  to 
much.  Was  only  in  hospital  a  short  while.  But 
during  our  five  days'  stay  on  the  firing  line,  the  first 
time  up,  we  were  certainly  highly  entertained  by 
the  Huns.  I  was  Bn.  Gas  N.C.O.  and  that  was  some 
job;  was  slightly  gassed  twice,  but  nothing  serious 
resulted.  My  health  is  better  now  than  any  other 
time  since  I  have  been  over. 

I  was  in  the  U.S.  Technical  Gas  School  15  days, 
received  quite  a  deal  of  instruction  in  warfare  gas- 
defence.  This  trip  provided  an  opportunity  for  me 


222  Chums  and  Brothers 

to  visit  Paris  a  short  while  and  I  am  crazy  about 
that  Burg,  the  most  beautiful  city  that  I  have  ever 
seen.  Why,  it  is  really  a  dream,  full  of  "Pep,"  styles, 
and  fine-looking  French  girls. 

I  have  had  a  chance  to  visit  quite  a  few  of  the 
European  cities.  We  landed  in  Liverpool,  England, 
went  to  Southampton,  London,  and  other  small  Eng 
lish  towns,  before  crossing  the  channel  coming  into 
France.  France  and  England  are  two  real  coun 
tries,  they  measure  up  to  everything  that  I  have 
heard  about  them.  A  man  is  really  treated  as  a 
man  over  here.  No  discriminations  in  any  form; 
we  go  anywhere  and  everywhere  we  want  to,  and 
the  people  are  very  kind  and  generous.  And  the 
French  girls  are  very  beautiful.  They  are  kind, 
friendly  and  affectionate.  While  in  Paris  I  visited 
some  of  the  largest  hotels,  theaters  and  museums, 
was  given  the  same  courtesy,  attention  and  welcome 
as  any  other  soldier.  I  really  like  it  well  enough  to 
stay  here.  But  one  disadvantage,  I  cannot  speak 
this  language.  Just  a  few  simple  words  in  my  vo 
cabulary.  And  unless  some  of  these  American  sol 
diers  poison  this  country  with  prejudice,  I  will  al 
ways  have  the  highest  respect  for  it,  because  it  is 
really  some  country.  The  white  American  chaps 
are  very  friendly  and  kind  now.  We  all  use  the 
same  "Y's"  over  here,  and  ofttimes  they  are  joining 
in  with  the  colored  soldiers  telling  each  other  about 
their  front  line  experiences.  We  are  expecting  to 


From  "Overseas99 

leave  Metz  in  a  few  days  but  do  not  know  where  we 
are  going.  It  will  probably  happen  that  we  will  be 
homeward  bound  real  soon.  Tell  Thomp  cham 
pagne  is  almost  as  free  as  water  over  here,  also  wine 
costs  only  from  5  to  15  francs.  Well,  write  me  the 
news  real  soon.  Sincerely  your  Pal, 

Sgt.  -    - 
Hdqs.  Co.,  802  Pioneer  Infantry, 

A.  E.  F.,  France. 

Oisseau,  April  14, 19 — . 

1%  /f  Y  dear  Friend: 

*•**•  Yesterday,  I  have  received  your  letter 
dated  of  the  March  24.  I  am  very  glad  to  know 
how  you  do  and  that  you  are  returned  in  Atlanta. 
Much  American  officers  and  soldiers  write  to  Ois 
seau,  but  I  have  not  received  letter  of  Lieutenant 
Smith.  I  hope  that  he  is  not  ill. 

If  it  is  a  pleasure  to  write  me,  it  is  also  a  very 
great  pleasure  to  read  you.  My  father  and  mother 
and  myself,  we  have  kept  a  good  souvenir  of  you. 
Often  we  think  and  speak  about  you.  Your  stay 
at  Oisseau  has  not  been  long  enough,  because  dur 
ing  this  time  we  have  had  much  pleasure,  we  shall 
not  forget  the  good  moments  that  we  have  passed 
with  you,  but  you  must  be  glad  to  be  returned  in 
Atlanta  with  your  soldiers  and  your  scholars  will 
be  glad  to  see  you  again. 


Chums  and  Brothers 

Remember  me  kindly  to  your  "fiancee"  and  the 
Lieutenant  Smith  if  you  see  him.  All  my  family  is 
well.  If  there  are  faults  in  this  letter,  forgive  me. 
Answer  at  an  early  date. 

Yours  respectfully, 


NOTE: — This  letter  with  its  naive  recognition  of  faulty  Eng 
lish  tells  better  than  words  of  the  pleasant  relations  that 
existed  between  the  French  people  and  the  colored  officers,  and 
in  many  cases  the  colored  soldiers.  One  cannot  but  recognize 
how  happy  our  Negro  men  "overseas"  were  to  be  in  a  land 
where  their  African  blood  was  not  a  necessary  interference  to 
good  comradeship. 


THE  MOTHER  COUNTRY 

My  native  country,  thee, 
Land  of  the  noble,  free, 
Thy  name  I  love. 

IT  was  on  the  second  day  of  December,  four  weeks 
after  the  armistice  was  signed,  that  I  received 
the  following  message  from  Washington: — "Deeply 
regret  to  inform  you  that  Second  Lieutenant  - 
Infantry  is  officially  reported  as  missing  in  action 
since  October  tenth.  Fuller  information  when  re 
ceived." 

Asking  that  a  copy  of  the  telegram  be  mailed  to 
me,  I  turned  to  the  secretary,  gave  her  the  purport 
of  the  telegram,  and  said,  "Fortunately  I  know 
where  the  boy  was  and  is,  for  at  the  time  he  is  re 
ported  missing  he  was  in  a  school  of  Advanced  Mili 
tary  Practice  at  Gondrecourt,  later,  he  was  with 
his  men  as  acting  captain,  and  led  them  'over  the 
top,'  and  was  in  charge  of  them  on  the  firing  line 
when  the  armistice  went  into  effect." 

That  night  I  telegraphed: 

"Harris,  Adjutant  General,  Washington,  D.   C. 
Your  telegram  reporting  Second  Lieutenant  - 
missing  received.     The  report  is  incorrect,  as  I  have 

225 


Chums  and  Brothers 

advices  from  him  as  to  his  whereabouts  at  the  time 
reported  as  missing  and  since." 

On  December  11,  the  following  despatch  was  re 
ceived  from  the  Adjutant  General's  office: — "Cabled 

for  information  concerning  Second  Lieutenant . 

Will  advise  report  when  received." 

This  second  word  from  the  busy  offices  of  the 
capital  city  moved  me  more  than  the  first  one;  it 
showed  behind  the  awful  facts  of  desolating  war, 
the  Mother  Country  trying  to  keep  in  touch  with 
those  of  us  whose  sons  and  brothers  were  in  some 
way  "put  out  of  the  fight,"  and  to  let  us  know  as 
early  as  might  be  how  it  went  with  the  soldier-boy 
who  had  made,  or  was  likely  to  make,  the  supreme 
sacrifice,  or  who  was  as  in  this  case,  "missing  in  ac 
tion." 

The  publication  of  the  report  in  the  local  press 
was  the  occasion  of  telephone  calls  and  notes  from 
friends  of  the  lad,  and  it  was  with  great  satisfac 
tion  that  I  could  always  reply,  "The  report  is  a 
mistake.  The  boy  is  alive  and  well  and  with  his 
men." 

This  does  not  end  the  story.  On  January  31 
there  came  a  third  telegram  signed  "Harris,  Adju 
tant  General,"  and  reading:  "Lieutenant  , 

previously  reported  missing  in  action  since  October 
tenth  reported  present  with  organization  November 
thirtieth." 

This  third  message  from  the  office  of  the  Adju- 


The  Mother  Country 

tant  General  seemed  even  more  significant  than  either 
of  the  others.  For  the  lad  is  a  colored  lad,  and 
in  the  absence  of  any  close  kinfolk,  he  had  given  my 
name  as  his  reference,  and  my  name  appears  among 
the  war  records.  Now  Our  Country  has  not  always 
been  as  loyal  to  him  and  to  his  people  as  it  should 
have  been.  Even  in  France,  he  was  made  to  know 
that  he  was  a  Negro,  though  the  French  people, 
themselves,  did  what  they  could  to  make  him  realize 
that  he  was  an  American  Soldier.  But  when  the  re 
port  came  from  overseas  that  the  "boy"  was  "missing 
in  action,"  no  one  in  Washington  inquired  if  he  were 
colored  or  white,  or  if  I  were  white  or  colored.  In 
his  calamity,  if  calamity  it  should  prove,  his  Amer 
icanism  stood  out  and  the  entire  machinery  of  this 
great  government  was  put  to  my  disposal  to  prove 
or  disprove  the  report,  and  to  bring  such  comfort 
or  solace  or  assurance  to  me  as  the  facts  would  war 
rant. 

Now  this  simple  recital  of  the  effort  of  the  gov 
ernment  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  friends  of  the  sol 
dier  who  makes  the  supreme  sacrifice,  or  who  is  likely 
to  make  it,  or  as  in  this  case,  whose  whereabouts  is 
uncertain,  always  brings  with  it  a  great  wave  of 
affection  for  my  country.  And  this  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  government  to  find  out  the  facts,  brings 
to  me  a  realizing  sense  of  the  over-shadowing,  shel 
tering  and  protecting  care  of  the  government,  and 
is  a  parable  of  the  over-shadowing,  sheltering  and 


Chwns  and  Brothers 

protecting   care  of   the  Almighty   Father.     And   I 
sing  as  though  it  were  a  new  song: 

My  native  country,  thee, 
Land  of  the  noble,  free, 
Thy  name  I  love. 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS 

IN  an  issue  of  the  National  Geographic  Magazine 
shortly  after  the  abdication  of  the  Czar  Nicholas, 
there  appeared  two  maps  of  the  world,  one  repre 
senting  the  Democratic  world  of  1776,  and  the  other 
the  Democratic  world  of  1917.  White  areas  rep 
resented  democracies;  shaded  areas  represented 
countries  democratic  in  principle  though  monar- 
chial  in  form ;  and  black  areas  depicted  autocracies. 
In  the  first  map  the  only  white  area  was  that  lying 
along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America,  and  east 
of  the  Allegheny  mountains.  The  rest  of  the  map 
showed  only  black  autocracy.  The  other  map 
showed  North  and  South  America  white,  Asia  largely 
white  and  shaded,  Africa  and  Australia  white,  and 
Europe  white  or  shaded,  except  a  black  patch  ex 
tending  from  the  Baltic  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean, 
and  taking  in  Asia  Minor,  and  including  the  mili 
tary  despotisms  of  Germany,  Austria-Hungary,  Bul 
garia  and  Turkey.  With  this  exception  the  world 
was  largely  democratic,  either  in  fact  or  in  prin 
ciple. 

Now  this  change  from  a  world  autocratic  to   a 
world  democratic  took  place  in  141  years.     Meas- 

229 


230  Chums  and  Brothers 

ured  in  terms  of  one  lifetime  this  seems  long.  Let 
us  look  at  it  in  another  way.  My  great-grandfather 
was  killed  while  logging  in  the  early  part  of  the  last 
century.  His  widow  survived  him  about  fifty  years, 
dying  in  1862.  I  never  saw  my  great-grandmother 
but  my  sister,  as  a  very  young  child,  met  her  once. 
So  that  the  time  that  elapsed  from  a  world  auto 
cratic  to  a  world  democratic  is  covered  by  the  lives 
of  two  individuals  that  touched  in  the  old  age  of  the 
one  and  the  babyhood  of  the  other  as  "ships  that 
pass  in  the  night." 

As  one  thinks  through  the  change  from  autoc 
racy  to  democracy  he  wonders  that  autocratic  Eu 
rope  that  hated  free  America  with  a  hatred  beyond 
words  to  express,  did  not  combine  to  attack  the  new 
republic  and  thus  wreck  the  little  experiment  in  de 
mocracy  at  its  beginning.  Fortunate  perhaps  it 
was  for  us,  that  the  French  Revolution  and  the  Na 
poleonic  Wars  so  occupied  the  attention  of  Europe 
that  we  were  given  the  time  needed  to  adjust  our 
selves  and  to  develop  a  strong  front  to  a  possible 
European  interference.  A  war  does  not  settle 
questions,  it  merely  opens  them,  and  there  must  be 
allowed  the  element  of  Time  if  the  purposes  of  the 
war  are  to  be  accomplished.  The  American  Revo 
lution  left  thirteen  jealous,  quarrelsome  little  na 
tionalities  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  planning  to  erect 
barriers  against  each  other,  and  only  waiting  for  Eu 
rope  to  be  free  to  pick  them  up  one  at  a  time.  It 


The  Mills  of  the  Gods  231 

was  the  genius  of  Washington  that  united  these  frac 
tious  little  countries  under  the  Constitution;  and 
the  Constitution  itself  required  eight  decades  for  its 
interpretation  and  application.  What  reputations 
were  made  in  those  eighty  years !  Calhoun,  the  nul- 
lifier;  Clay,  the  compromiser;  Webster,  the  ex 
pounder  of  the  Constitution ;  Lincoln,  the  savior  and 
the  Emancipator. 

Even  with  the  Civil  War,  the  war  between  the 
States,  the  Rebellion — call  it  what  you  will — a  half 
century,  has  failed  in  the  accomplishment  of  all  that 
the  war  was  fought  out  for.  Perhaps  it  was  but 
natural  that  the  South  should  try  to  hold  on  to  as 
much  of  the  old  regime  as  was  possible  under  the 
new  forms.  Even  here,  I  sometimes  think  that  the 
first  thought  was  right.  In  a  little  town  in  middle 
Georgia — and  I  doubt  if  this  is  an  isolated  case — 
the  good  people  got  together  and  debated:  "The 
war  is  over ;  the  Negro  is  free ;  we  must  educate  him 
for  citizenship."  And  they  established  schools  and 
hired  teachers,  and  a  promising  experiment  was  be 
gun.  Then  came  the  reactionary,  a  man  of  influ 
ence  who  had  been  high  in  the  councils  of  the  Con 
federacy.  He  said,  "This  must  not  be;  it  is  dan 
gerous  ;  you  must  stop  it."  And  so  the  experiment 
was  dropped  before  it  had  fairly  begun.  Suppose 
the  reaction  had  not  set  in;  how  different  the  last 
fifty  years  would  have  been !  There  would  at  least 
have  been  no  13th,  14th  and  15th  amendments;  they 


Chums  and  Brothers 

would  not  have  been  needed.  These  amendments 
crystallize  the  results  of  three  and  a  half  years  of 
war. 

If  the  plain  results  of  the  war  of  '61  could  have 
been  accepted — but  they  could  not  have  been.  Here 
again  the  element  of  Time  had  to  come  in.  He  is  a 
poor  student  of  history  who  does  not  see  in  the  more 
than  half  century  since  Lee's  surrender  that  much 
has  been  gained ;  one  needs  to  reckon  with  a  tendency 
here  for  the  conquered  to  become  in  time  conquer 
ors.  In  the  eleventh  century  William  of  Normandy 
at  the  battle  of  Hastings  conquered  England  and 
made  that  country  an  appendage  to  Normandy.  In 
three  centuries,  the  historian  tells  us,  by  the  quiet 
pressure  of  ideas,  a  bloodless  revolution  had  taken 
place  and  Normandy  had  become  an  appendage  to 
England.  While  the  pressure  of  the  conquered 
upon  the  conquerors  can  be  seen  in  our  own  problem 
since  '65,  he  is  a  man  of  narrow  view  and  limited 
faith  who  does  not  project  himself  to  the  point  when 
the  amendments  passed  as  the  outcome  of  the  reac 
tion  in  the  south  will  be  accepted  in  their  most  sim 
ple  and  obvious  meaning  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land. 

So  much  by  way  of  illustration.  What  we  are  in 
terested  in  is  the  present  world  situation  in  which 
the  league  of  nations  and  the  treaty  of  peace  are 
before  us.  Twice  at  least  in  history  has  this  situ 
ation  been  matched,  at  least  in  kind,  though  not  in 


Tlie  Mills  of  the  Gods 

decree.  The  first  was  at  Runnymede,  when  the 
Barons  confronted  King  John  and  compelled  him 
to  sign  the  Magna  Chart  a,  which  as  the  king  signed 
he  meant  to  break.  The  great  charter  became  the 
bulwark  of  our  English  liberty.  The  second  has 
already  been  referred  to,  the  convention  which  "in 
order  to  secure  a  more  perfect  union"  created  out 
of  the  thirteen  Atlantic  states  the  Federal  Republic, 
known  as  The  United  States.  I  quote  from  a  recent 
address : 

"There  was  no  government  prior  to  the  writing 
of  our  constitution  and  the  founding  of  this  repub 
lic,  that  could  secure  for  its  people  either  religious 
freedom  or  civil  liberty,  or  freedom  of  speech,  or 
freedom  of  the  press,  or  security  of  individual  rights, 
or  popular  education,  or  universal  franchise;  just 
the  securing  of  any  one  of  those  things  during  all 
these  thousand  years  had  baffled  philosophers  and 
statesmen.  Immediately  upon  the  adoption  of  our 
constitution  and  the  founding  of  this  republic,  we 
began  automatically  to  secure  all  of  these  privileges 
for  the  first  time.  We  wielded  a  wholesome  influence 
on  other  countries  and  they  began  to  secure  them 
just  in  proportion  as  they  imitated  the  ideas  pro 
mulgated  in  the  constitution." 

Now  the  local  situation  in  1787  was  not  unlike 
the  world  situation  in  1919.  The  proposed  con 
stitution  met  with  discussion  and  criticism.  "Un 
less,"  said  the  opponents,  "you  write  into  this  con 
stitution  some  popular  fallacies  to  please  the  peo- 


Chums  and  Brothers 

pie,  the  constitution  will  never  be  adopted.     I  quote 
again : 

"George  Washington  had  taken  no  part  in  the 
discussion  up  to  that  time,  but  when  he  heard  that 
statement,  he  rose  from  the  President's  chair  and  in 
tones  of  suppressed  emotion,  said,  'It  is  too  prob 
able  that  no  plan  we  propose  will  be  adopted,  per 
haps  another  dreadful  conflict  is  to  be  sustained; 
if  to  please  the  people,  we  offer  what  we  ourselves 
disapprove,  how  can  we  afterwards  defend  our  work? 
Let  us  raise  a  standard  to  which  the  wise  and  hon 
est  can  repair ;  the  event  is  in  the  hands  of  God.' ' 

So  new,  so  striking,  so  startling  was  the  Amer 
ican  Constitution  when  first  promulgated,  that  the 
writer  from  whom  I  have  quoted  calls  it  "inspired," 
and  he  calls  attention  to  this  fact,  that  the  conven 
tion,  after  meeting  daily  for  four  weeks  without 
writing  a  single  word,  was  on  the  fifth  week  about  to 
adjourn  and  abandon  their  purpose.  At  this  junc 
ture,  Benjamin  Franklin  addressed  the  Chair  in  these 
words : 

"The  longer  I  live  and  the  more  I  know,  the  more 
I  believe  that  God  governs  in  the  affairs  of  men,  and 
if  the  sparrow  cannot  fall  without  His  notice,  is  it 
probable  that  an  empire  can  rise  without  His  assist 
ance?  'Except  the  Lord  build  the  house,  they  labor 
in  vain  who  build  it.*  I  firmly  believe  this,  and  I 
also  believe  that  without  His  concurring  aid,  we 
shall  succeed  in  our  political  building  no  better  than 
the  builders  of  Babel.  I  therefore  move  you  that 


The  Mills  of  the  Gods  235 

from  henceforth  we  open  our  daily  deliberations  with 


morning  prayer." 


From  that  moment  they  made  progress. 

Now  the  League  of  Nations  Covenant  and  the 
Treaty  of  Peace  are  on  a  world  scale  what  the 
Constitution  was  in  1787.  Of  them  a  friend  in  New 
England  writes,  "As  I  understand  the  League  of 
Nations  and  the  Treaty  of  Peace,  they  are  pretty 
bad;  but  perhaps  they  are  the  best  we  can  get  un 
der  present  circumstances.  Let  us  accept  them,  and 
amend  them  as  occasion  demands  as  we  have  amended 
other  constitutions."  In  the  words  of  Washington, 
"Let  us  now  raise  a  standard  to  which  the  wise  and 
honest  of  the  world  can  repair." 

In  the  progress  of  time,  the  Germans,  who  today 
cling  to  all  they  can  of  the  past,  will  find  themselves 
relieved  of  the  burden  of  supporting  an  imperial  es 
tablishment,  relieved  of  the  tax  to  support  a  stand 
ing  army  of  4,000,000  men;  of  the  support  of  a 
navy  that  must  equal  or  exceed  that  of  England  and 
be  the  first  navy  of  the  world;  and  they  will  find  the 
standing  army  becoming  an  army  to  reinforce  the 
great  body  of  laborers  and  to  relieve  the  German 
woman  of  much  of  the  labor  in  the  field  that  hitherto 
has  fallen  upon  her,  and  will  now  fall  upon  the  men. 
In  addition  to  these  patent  reliefs,  as  time  moves  on 
there  will  come  to  Germany  as  to  the  United  States 
those  privileges  that  naturally  flowed  out  of  the  Con- 


Chums  and  Brothers 

stitution,  a  list  of  privileges  that  it  would  be  well 
to  be  in  the  mind  of  everyone: 

Religious  freedom, 

Civil  liberty, 

Freedom  of  speech, 

Freedom  of  the  press, 

Security  of  individual  rights, 

Popular  education, 

Universal  franchise. 

When  the  Germans  realize  these  benefits  coming 
to  them  out  of  the  new  conditions,  they  will  under 
stand  that  the  war  freed  them  from  a  military 
regime  even  as  the  rest  of  the  world  was  freed  from 
the  fear  of  military  domination. 

As  with  Germany,  so  with  her  allies.  Italy  pre 
sents  a  different  problem,  for  Italy  is  a  party  to 
the  terms  laid  down  to  the  Central  Powers ;  yet  Italy 
is  not  happy.  We  trembled  some  months  ago  when 
we  learned  that  the  Baltic  Sea  had  become  a  German 
lake,  and  also  we  trembled  when  the  Black  Sea,  that 
great  trade  route  between  the  Occident  and  the 
Orient,  had  likewise  become  a  German  lake.  And 
we  breathe  more  easily  now  that  this  situation  has 
passed.  Now  we  do  not  see  why  the  Adriatic  should 
become  an  Italian  lake.  Being  4000  miles  from 
Italy,  and  with  our  American  traditions  and  proce 
dure  preventing,  perhaps,  a  thorough  understanding 
of  Italy's  position,  we  do  not  and  perhaps  cannot 
see  the  situation  from  the  Italian  standpoint.  Never- 


The  Mills  of  the  Gods  237 

theless  Italy  must  live  with  France  on  her  west,  and 
the  Jugo-Slavs  on  the  east,  and  it  is  better  to  be 
on  friendly  terms  with  her  neighbors  than  otherwise. 
For,  and  this  is  the  gist  of  the  whole  matter,  if  there 
is  to  be  a  new  world,  and  that  is  what  we  fought  for, 
then  the  old  principle  of  action,  "exploitation," 
which  reached  its  largest  expression  in  the  German 
demand  for  world-power,  must  give  way  to  a  new 
principle  in  which  more  of  the  idea  of  "give  and 
take"  shall  rule. 
Aug.,  1919. 


SUPPOSE  IT  HAD  BEEN  YOUR  SON 

AS  we  sat  around  our  fire  in  our  mountain  cabin, 
the  evening  paper  had  for  us  but  one  item. 
A  lad  whom  we  knew,  a  student  in  my  own  classes, 
had  been  arrested  in  Cobb  County,  and  the  mob  had 
gathered  to  execute  first  and  to  try  afterwards. 
Fortunately  some  lawyers  were  present  and  these 
with  the  wit  or  wisdom  of  the  Sheriff,  managed  to 
spirit  the  lad  to  Atlanta  where  for  the  moment  he 
was  safe. 

Perhaps  the  story  is  best  told  in  his  own  words : — 
"Finishing  my  work  at  Cartersville,  Wednesday 
morning,  I  left  there  at  2  P.M.  Arrived  at  Ken- 
nesaw  at  3 :40  P.M.  I  checked  my  bag  at  the  ticket 
office  of  R.R.  Station  and  spent  a  pleasant  hour  at 
King's  Wigwam.  Returning  to  Kennesaw  at  5 :35 
I  got  my  bag  from  the  check  room  and  was  sitting 
on  it  talking  to  King  in  front  of  the  station,  when 
I  was  approached  by  a  group  of  countrymen,  and 
told  that  I  was  suspected  of  something,  and  would 
have  to  be  carried  to  Marietta.  An  old  man  in  over 
alls  placed  a  long  pistol  in  my  face  telling  me  I  was 
under  arrest  and  not  to  move  or  he  would  shoot 
me.  He  searched  me,  finding  not  even  a  pocket  knife 

238 


Suppose  It  Had  Been  Your  Son  239 

upon  my  person.  I  was  made  to  sit  in  the  white 
waiting-room  with  about  two  hundred  countrymen 
staring  at  me  until  the  train  arrived.  I  tried  to 
find  out  what  I  was  suspected  of,  but  was  told  that 
I  would  find  out  in  time.  With  the  gun  always  en 
trained  on  me  I  was  placed  in  the  white  coach  and 
taken  to  Marietta.  I  offered  identification  card, 
etc.,  to  certify  who  I  was,  but  they  were  not  accepted. 
Upon  arriving  in  Marietta,  I  was  taken  through  the 
heart  of  the  city  to  the  Court  House,  gun  always 
on  me.  A  crowd  of  about  seventy-five  followed  me 
into  the  Court  House.  I  then  found  that  the 
charge  of  which  I  was  suspected  was  criminal  as 
sault  upon  some  woman  in  Cherokee  County,  and 
that  my  bag  had  been  rifled  while  checked  in  the 
ticket  office  at  Kennesaw,  and  revolver  found  which 
I  had  within,  under  all  my  wearing  apparel.  Sev 
eral  persons  who  followed  said  that  if  I  were  the 
right  person  there  would  be  a  lynching  in  Marietta 
that  night.  I  was  placed  in  a  cell  where  there  were 
four  criminals.  Later,  the  Sheriff  came  up,  ques 
tioned  me,  and  told  me  that  it  was  a  very  serious 
case ;  that  runners  had  been  sent  to  Cherokee  County 
to  bring  back  the  crowd,  and  that  the  cry  of  lynch 
ing  him  was  already  in  the  air  at  Marietta.  I  told 
him  of  having  been  in  Cartersville  Monday,  Tues 
day,  and  Wednesday  morning.  Through  Mr.  A. 
King,  to  whom  probably  I  owe  my  life,  two  lawyers 
of  ability  were  immediately  put  upon  my  case.  They 


240  Chums  and  Brothers 

came  to  see  me  telling  me  that  my  father  had  been 
telephoned  and  was  on  his  way  to  Marietta,  of  the 
danger  that  I  was  in,  and  that  they  were  trying  to 
get  me  out  of  there. 

"Later  the  Sheriff  came  up,  all  lights  were  turned 
out  in  the  jail.  He  warned  us  to  be  as  quiet  as  pos 
sible,  as  the  danger  was  great  and  that  I  was  to  be 
taken  to  Atlanta  if  possible.  Later  I  was  taken  out 
of  the  jail  through  some  side  way  .  .  .  placed  in  a 
high  powered  car  in  which  we  raced  for  Atlanta. 
The  Sheriff  told  me  that  there  were  more  cars  and 
more  people  in  Marietta  than  there  were  at  the 
lynching  of  Loo  Frank.  In  fact  they  had  very  little 
hope  of  getting  me  through.  We  reached  Atlanta 
about  10:50  P.M.  without  being  molested.  I  was 
allowed  to  call  my  mother  up  and  talked  with  her 
for  about  ten  minutes.  The  Sheriff  told  the  jailer 
that  he  did  not  believe  that  I  was  the  right  party. 
He  was  very  nice  to  me  and  just  before  we  reached 
the  jail  he  stopped  and  bought  me  a  lunch.  Later 
Daddy  came  down  with  the  lawyers.  He  found  a 
number  of  friends  there  waiting.  The  night  in  jail 
was  horrible.  I  was  allowed  to  remain  in  a  room 
where  prisoners  roam  during  the  day,  and  had  a 
bench  to  sleep  on.  The  next  morning  innumerable 
people  came  to  see  me.  About  11  A.M.  the  brother 
of  the  woman  who  it  was  claimed  was  assaulted  came 
down  and,  after  much  deliberation,  said  that  I  wasn't 
the  party.  I  was  released  about  twelve  with  a  hun- 


Suppose  It  Had  Been  Your  Son 

dred  dollar  bond  for  having  a  weapon  in  my  bag. 
The  lawyer's  fees  cost  Daddy  over  three  hundred 
dollars. 


THINKING  BLACK  ABOUT  AFRICA 

A  YOUNG  friend  of  mine,  a  former  student, 
now  studying  in  a  Northern  University,  sent 
me,  just  before  he  was  called  to  the  colors,  a  thesis 
prepared  for  some  class  purpose  entitled  "Thinking 
Black  About  Africa."  The  argument  was  that  Af 
rica  or  the  desire  to  possess  Africa  was  the  cause  of 
the  war.  Europe  has  become  a  congeries  of  manu 
facturing  nations  during  the  past  half  century  and 
each  was  looking  for  a  world  market  and  for  a  source 
of  raw  material.  Shut  out  from  the  Western  con 
tinent  by  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  they  had  turned 
toward  and  had  partitioned  off  the  Dark  Continent. 
The  argument  further  declared  that  the  proper  set 
tlement  of  the  African  riddle  was  "Africa  for  the 
Africans,"  and  that  any  peace  that  settled  the  Afri 
can  problem  from  a  European  standpoint  was 
foredoomed  to  failure.  The  leadership  of  Europe 
was  accepted  that  in  time  Africa  might  be  brought 
into  the  family  of  nations ;  but  the  slogan  was,  "Af 
rica  for  the  Africans." 

The  students  of  Atlanta  University  will  recall  a 
visit  some  months  ago  from  two  Frenchmen,  and  will 
also  recall  a  characterization  made  at  that  visit, 

242 


Thinking  Black  About   Africa  243 

that  in  the  order  of  beneficent  administration  and 
the  opening  of  opportunity  for  the  African,  him 
self,  the  nations  stood  in  the  order,  France,  Great 
Britain,  Germany.  France,  as  the  most  democratic 
country  of  the  world,  was  giving  the  largest  oppor 
tunity  to  her  African  subjects. 

The  new  map  of  Africa  shows  Germany  elimi 
nated.  German  East  Africa,  German  Southwest 
Africa  and  German  Kameroon  have  either  passed  to 
the  control  of  Great  Britain  or  have  been  divided  be 
tween  France  and  Belgium.  The  German  plan  of  a 
railroad  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Indian  Ocean  has 
become  a  dream;  and  the  railroad  from  Cairo  to 
Cape  Town  across  territory  controlled  by  Great 
Britain  is  becoming  an  accomplished  fact. 

One  of  the  most  signficant  items  of  the  World 
War  is  this,  that  the  component  parts  of  the  Brit 
ish  Empire  have  been  unstinted  in  their  aid  to  the 
Mother  Country  in  her  dire  distress.  There  must 
be  something  in  the  English  manner  of  handling  her 
distant  possessions  that  makes  them  loyal.  This 
we  might  have  expected  of  Canada,  South  Africa, 
and  Australia;  but  that  India  and  the  Dutch  of 
South  Africa  so  recently  conquered  in  the  Boer  War 
should  not  fail  in  the  emergency,  surprises  and 
pleases.  Now  does  this  partition  of  Africa  among 
the  Allies  have  in  it  the  promise  of  an  Africa  for 
the  Africans?  I  am  afraid  the  answer  must  be  "no" 


244  Chums  and  Brothers 

unless  a  new  spirit  comes  into  the  world.  And  this 
I  am  expecting. 

This  leads  far  afield  for  the  answer,  for  the  an 
swer  comes  not  from  Africa  nor  from  Europe  but 
from  America.  I  am  much  interested  in  a  chapter 
entitled  "The  American  Character"  in  a  little  book 
by  Dr.  Francis  G.  Peabody  of  Harvard  University. 
"What  is  it,"  he  asks,  "then,  in  this  vast  economic 
development,  which  may  prove  disastrous  to  the 
American  character?  It  is  the  confusion  of  the 
spirit  of  industrialism  with  the  spirit  of  commer 
cialism.  Industrialism  is  creative,  constructive,  edu 
cative.  It  is  engaged  in  making  things  which  other 
people  want,  or  in  bringing  things  where  other  peo 
ple  want  them.  It  is  the  organization  of  produc 
tion  and  distribution.  Commercialism,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  a  habit  of  mind,  a  social  creed,  a  trader's 
point  of  view,  which  estimates  all  things  by  the 
money-standard,  and  hopes  to  obtain  by  money 
things  which  money  cannot  buy.  Good  and  evil, 
success  and  failure,  are,  to  the  spirit  of  commercial 
ism,  not  ethical  but  monetary  terms." 

I  like  the  distinction,  and  I  recognize  the  danger 
of  becoming  commercialized.  But  in  the  industrial 
ism  of  the  nation,  Dr.  Peabody  sees  a  real  idealism. 
"By  one  of  the  most  dramatic  coincidences  of  his 
tory,  the  same  nation  which  has  become  thus  com 
mitted  to  commercial  enterprise,  is  at  the  same  time 
the  heir  of  a  great  tradition  of  moral  and  religious 


Thinking  Black  About  Africa  245 

idealism.  The  early  settlers  of  the  Western  conti 
nent  were  not  freebooters  and  buccaneers,  tempted 
across  the  sea  by  the  lust  of  gold,  but  sober  and  God 
fearing  exiles,  seeking  freedom  to  worship  God  after 
the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences."  The  Pilgrims 
and  the  Puritans  who  settled  New  England  bear  evi 
dence  of  this;  as  do  the  German  Pietists,  the  Mora 
vians  and  the  Quakers  who  settled  Pennsylvania ;  the 
Catholics  who  sought  Civil  Liberty  in  Maryland,  and 
the  Huguenots  who  sought  a  shelter  in  Charleston. 
This  same  idealism,  the  thought  is,  shows  itself  in  the 
voluntary  support  of  two  hundred  thousand  churches 
valued  at  a  billion  dollars,  as  against  the  State 
Church  of  the  European  countries  where  the  bish 
ops  are  appointed  by  the  prime  minister,  and  the 
clergy  are  government  officials.  More  than  this,  it 
shows  itself  in  the  vast  missionary  movement,  financed 
from  the  "gains  of  commercialism"  and  not  sup 
ported  by  the  government.  And  we  may  add  to  this, 
the  establishment  and  the  endowment  of  our  colleges 
and  universities,  before  and  since  the  establishing 
of  the  State  Universities;  and  to  these,  the  estab 
lishing  of  all  those  beneficent  institutions  which  en 
deavor  to  share  with  the  less  fortunate,  some  of  the 
results  of  our  industrialism.  But  on  a  still  larger 
theater  the  same  idealism  shows  itself  in  the  nation's 
attitude  toward  world  problems;  the  "Open  Door" 
in  China ;  "disinterested  candor  with  Japan  has  won 
that  proud  nation  to  a  confidence  which  even  the 


246  Chums  and  Brothers 

hysterical  animosity  of  legislators  has  not  yet  been 
able  to  destroy";  our  attitude  toward  Cuba  and 
Spain,  as  the  outcome  of  the  Spanish  War ;  and  our 
showing  a  new  method  of  dealing  with  subject  peo 
ples  as  with  the  Filipinos,  where  we  have  exchanged 
the  principle  of  exploitation  for  that  of  building 
up  a  people  to  a  personal  national  life.  "Even  the 
politicians  of  the  United  States  have  come  to  real 
ize  that  a  candidate  who  would  win  popular  applause 
must  be — or  at  least  pretend  to  be — a  moral  idealist, 
promoting  a  cause  which  the  conscience  of  the  peo 
ple  should  support.  .  .  .  "The  largest  and  finest  ex 
pression  of  this  fundamental  note  in  the  American 
character  is  offered  in  the  story  of  the  past  two 
years.  After  years  of  patient  and  long-suffering 
neutrality  the  American  people  were  summoned  to 
abandon  their  commercial  independence  and  to  take 
part  in  a  world-war;  and  in  words  whose  eloquence 
of  phrase  is  matched  by  their  depth  of  feeling,  the 
representative  of  American  opinion  speaks  for  a 
united  country.  'We  have  no  selfish  ends  to  serve. 
We  desire  no  conquest,  no  dominion.  We  seek  no 
indemnities  for  ourselves,  no  material  compensation 
for  the  sacrifices  we  shall  freely  make.  We  are  but 
one  of  the  champions  of  the  rights  of  mankind.  We 
shall  be  satisfied  when  those  rights  have  been  made 
as  secure  as  the  faith  and  the  freedom  of  the  nations 
can  make  them.' ' 

Thus  speaks  America  at  its  highest  and  best.   This 


Thmkmg  Black  About  Africa  247 

is  the  new  spirit  that  is  in  the  world.  It  is  prin 
cipally  new  to  Europe,  where  the  secret  treaties,  bol 
stering  up  selfish  ambitions,  have  been  the  story  and 
the  history.  They  do  not  understand  it  as  yet.  But, 
that  spirit  of  generous  idealism  is  in  the  world;  it 
came  to  America  with  the  Pilgrims  in  the  Mayflower 
three  hundred  years  ago  come  next  year;  it  has  be 
come  the  fundamental  note  of  our  history  and  of  our 
diplomacy ;  it  controls  the  action  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  millions  of  people  in  America  today,  and  it 
has  made  its  entrance  into  world  politics,  during 
and  since  the  World  War  as  never  before. 

And  it  is  here  that  I  look  for  the  solution  of  the 
African  riddle,  and  an  Africa  for  the  Africans,  the 
increasing  spirit  of  idealism  that  shall  more  and 
more  control  in  national  and  international  affairs. 

God  hasten  the  day ! 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


RENEWED  BOOKS  ARE  SUBJECT  TO  IMMEDIATE 
RECALL 


LIBRARY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  Slip-25m-6,'66(G3855s4)458 


N9   524477 

E185.61 

Webster,  E.H.  W38 

Chums  and  brothers. 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
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